Tales of Emerald
by AwesomeFanFictionAuthor
Summary: There is a world where Pokemon are bonded to humans as familiars, well, not the whole world. Waterfall Kingdom, I don't know if the rest of the world can do it. Your identity is connected to your Pokemon, and your life doesn't really begin until you get them. I don't have mine yet, the only one in the family who doesn't, and I'm a princess...So...that's fun.
1. A Day in the Life

**Welcome to a new story that was an old story that is a thing I'm writing just to say that I wrote it, based on a world I made when I was a smol child.**

 **The Child's POV**

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Even though it was at an awkward angle, sunlight still managed to flood my room each morning. For the first second of every morning, I could enjoy that. The white noise of the waterfall right outside the castle ensured a good night's sleep. The beds were comfy. I mean… life was pretty good on the surface. Most would call my complaints stupid. I was a princess of this great kingdom. I got just about the best of everything.

I had no idea what time it was, but not because I didn't have a clock. I did have one, right near my bed. The problem was… you couldn't necessarily count on that. When you had a family like mine, nothing could be assumed. The rules of time and space could be flipped on you and danger lurked around every corner.

There weren't any enemies, of course, it was just my sisters. There were nine of us in total. We all ate breakfast together. I'd have to get there fast so that I could actually grab some breakfast. I didn't have just my sisters to worry about either, also their Pokemon and our parents and their Pokemon and the others living here. We had lots of food, of course, but it got a little crazy, and I was at a distinct disadvantage.

I stripped my night clothing and quickly slipped into appropriate castle attire. Then I darted out the door of my small private chamber. I didn't get a big room yet, because I didn't have a Pokemon companion I needed room for. Just me took up way less room, so I was actually in what was more like a guest room. It was fine.

Fast as the wind, I made my way through staircases and long, winding hallways. As I ran down a flight of stairs, I saw two black shadowy portals open up. Platinum fell through one and into another. I found that a hallway was suddenly flooded as Sapphire surfed on her Kyogre, a small whale. So I had to go another way. The other room I went through, Pearl was in, and the gravity was alone. Yep, cool, that's what I wanted. Totally not just trying to get to breakfast.

But this was my life, everyone using these crazy magical powers with their Pokemon familiars… and then there was… me, hehe.

There was something wrong with me. Royal family members are usually born with the potential for really strong magic. It seemed I… was not. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do much in terms of magic. Not like the rest of them…

There were Gold, Silver, and Crystal with the three legendary dogs with power over electricity, fire, and purifying water respectively. Ruby and Sapphire had their titans, Ruby had Groudon, the titan of land, and Sapphire had Kyogre, the titan of the sea. Diamond and Pearl controlled time and space, and Platinum controlled some weird pocket dimension that sort of spilled over into our world sometimes… it was weird.

And then there was me. Nothing. Nobody. The Dud.

I sat down to breakfast, already in progress. I never really talked during breakfast, there was too much going on. Besides, I didn't want to hear what they had to say anyways. Probably just pointing out my faults, you know?

The food was yummy, there was bread and cheese and fruits. Our kingdom was isolated, but we had everything we needed to survive right here. The ground was mostly composed of white rock, too tough to grow anything in, so we used hydroponics.

I took and ate at fast as I could. I noted that the king was not at the table… but mom was. She was a beautiful lady with Cresselia as her familiar. So many voices… the Pokemon could talk to us, too, and they were not quiet. I couldn't wait until after this, when I had some free time. Soon, the food was gone. I got… a fair amount. I've gotten more before, and I for sure have gotten less. And Ruby and Sapphire were fighting over something stupid, and Diamond and Pearl were warping the laws of space-time to pull down butlers' pants. Crystal tried to get Ruby and Sapphire to stop fighting. Platinum and Silver were off in a corner, quietly eating, and Gold surveyed the chaos with a bit of a smirk playing on her lips.

And we went on like this, until mom banged her crescent staff on the floor. We all knew that meant we had to shut up and sit down now, or we would feel her wrath. We had all had the misfortune of getting on mom's bad side. It wasn't a good time. This was how she could control a household such as this, and a kingdom with it. As we all quieted down and focused on her, I couldn't help but notice my dad wasn't at the table again. He had important business to attend to, I was sure, but it would have been nice to see him. Or maybe it wouldn't have made much of a difference either way.

He was off upgrading the kingdom, combining his psychic powers with technology in order to revolutionize how we interact with our environments. We tested some of the technology here in the castle. Not gonna lie, it was pretty cool stuff. There were floating holographic panels that could do all sorts of things like show you a map or let you communicate telepathically with someone on the other side of the kingdom. The most impressive thing about the technology, though, was teleportation. The concept of teleportation itself wasn't that impressive. Just about anyone with a psychic Pokemon could tap into that ability, but the rest of us who didn't… Well, up to this point, we had no access to something like that. But now we could do it with technology. You could teleport from one console to another. For someone without magic like me, that was pretty incredible, huh? That was what Gold would say, anyways.

"Let us thank Arceus for the meal." Mom said. I bowed my head and prayed. Arceus shaped the world in a time and place where there was nothing. He made everything we had, and linked us to our Pokemon, so we prayed to him. Sometimes he actually came to visit. Arceus was a giant four legged, white Pokemon. He never did much of anything, just came to survey us and eat our food offerings.

Can I please bond with someone, anyone? Please, I will work so hard for you, Arceus. Just please grant me my magic.

"I expect you all to do your duties." She glared in the general direction of the younger siblings, including me. "You are dismissed." She was a good mother, really. One time when I was feeling miserable I ran to her, and even though she was in the middle of some work, she set it aside to comfort me. I really did have it good. I just had to keep working.

I got up, pushed my chair in, and quickly made my way back to my room. I wanted to get out of this room before-

"Hey Dud! You're on dishes! Crystal, you too."

That happened. Everyone had to do chores around here, and if you stayed in the dining hall for too long, you got stuck with the worst job of the bunch, doing the dishes. It wasn't so much that dishes were difficult to do, there were just so many of them, and it was so tedious and time consuming. With a dramatic sigh, I walked off in the direction of the kitchen.

"Whining isn't going to do you any good, little sister." Crystal said. "Let's go."

Crystal was one of the nicest sisters here. She was two years older than me with light blue hair, nearly clear eyes, and a peaceful smile. She pet her Suicune's purple mane absentmindedly. It stood there, a majestic dog that stood about shoulder height and had short blue and white fur and a large crystal shape protruding from its head. The legends didn't have to do the work. They did enough work by lending us their power, or at least, that was the justification for that.

I kept thinking like I was even a part of this. The legends did nothing for me. It was all them. It was all… everyone else in the castle, everyone in the entire kingdom. I had less prowess than the commoners. I shouldn't look down on them, or refer to them as commoners… but I mean, come on. I was supposed to be better than them! I was supposed to-

"You are supposed to be doing dishes, young lady." Archibald said. I grimaced. Archibald was an aging man paired with a Xatu, a large, green, psychic bird. He was an advisor to the king, and he could read thoughts. He… was a big stickler for the rules. The fact that I couldn't even have my thoughts to myself. Archibald looking into everything. "Don't think at me in that tone." He said, but it was unclear who he was talking to. I had already turned my back on him and crossed the threshold into the kitchen.

There were two large, industrial looking sinks up against metal walls and a checkerboard floor. It smelled of cleaning supplies and the leftover food. It didn't make the best of smell combinations, but it was something I was used to.

"You scrub, I'll rinse?" Crystal asked.

"That's how it usually goes, yeah? That's fine." I said in return. I picked up a scrubber and started to scrub. The plates we were using were made of precious materials, like gold and silver. Usually, dishes were made of pewter, but we had to have things fancy. Why… I wasn't exactly sure. The few times I tried to ask about it, I got a very vague answer about Arceus and the legends and such.

Anyways, the point was you had to be careful with how you cleaned these things. There was a special cleaning solution, and then I couldn't scrub too hard, but I had to scrub hard enough to get the food off. It was a balancing act, just like anything else in life. But that was kinda boring, huh? It would be cooler to just go all in.

Crystal had the easy job, the rinsing. The job was even easier for her, because her power was to manipulate and purify water. She could just use her magic to get it all done. She didn't even really have to move much. She was good at her magic, too. She purified the lake where we got our drinking water and farming water and…basically, our entire lives were dependent on this lake, and Crystal kept it pure. It seemed like that was a lot of weight on her shoulders. I mean, she was good at her job, but if she ever messed up… people could get sick.

I guessed, from that perspective, I was lucky to not have a legend. If I had a legend, I would have a responsibility like her. Now, during my day, while my sisters all had jobs to do in order to hold up the pillars of our kingdom. I got to do… whatever it was I wanted to do. Or maybe I was just telling myself that so I felt better about myself. Who knew?

"Training today?" Crystal asked, making casual conversation.

"Same as always." I said. Crystal shook her head.

"I don't understand why they still do that. It's been long enough. They should just give you a name already, let you forge your own identity. Just because you don't have a legend doesn't mean you have to sit around as a blank slate like a kid."

"Uhuh…" I said, scrubbing dish after dish and passing them on to Crystal.

"Are you mad at me?" Crystal asked, noting my terse tone.

"You've given up on me too, hm?" I asked in return, refusing to make eye contact. It cut deep, it really did. I knew she was trying to be nice. Crystal never tried to be mean to anyone, but she didn't understand. I could forge my identity without a legend. In fact, I already had, whether my family recognized it or not. There were things I was good at. There were things I was better at than anyone. If you needed someone to do something daring, that everyone else was afraid to go out and do…I was your girl. That wasn't the problem. The problem was I couldn't do magic, and that was all anyone cared about.

"I haven't… what I'm saying is, you don't need it."

"Mhm. Tell that to everyone else in this kingdom." I retorted.

There was silence between us for a few moments, just the noises of dishes and some flowing water. I had no intention of talking to her. I just wanted to get this done so I could go out and have a good time exploring. I'd been around 17 years, and there was always something new to find. A legend… if I had one, we could explore together.

"Maybe I will."

"What?" I asked.

"Tell the kingdom." Crystal said, smiling at me. I sighed. No. I tried saying things like that myself. I was not heard. I didn't say anything to her, though. It wasn't worth it.

We did the dishes in silence, and then I left.

I went back to my room. That was the other thing we had to do, take care of our own rooms. There were maids and servants to clean the rest of the castle, but we were responsible for our own rooms. It was supposed to teach respect for our surroundings. That was the downside to bolting out of bed in the morning, it made making the bed more difficult.

And fold, and tuck… everything was very methodical. Archibald told us exactly how we were to care for our rooms, and we were expected to abide by those rules. It was something I could do, but I didn't enjoy it.

I finished that up, changed into casual clothing, and slipped into the foyer to bring up a console. The console was a holographic screen, light blue in color. It was touch activated, even though there wasn't any physical screen to actually touch. It had a menu screen where you would select your service. I selected teleportation, and the console's screen switched to a map of the kingdom, with other consoles highlighted in green.

I selected the one on the island in the middle of the lake. It asked me to hold still for a moment, while it sent out a beam of light that went up and down my body. I didn't really understand the technology that went behind these consoles. I supposed I didn't really have to understand it in order to use it. How many people really knew how this thing worked? Besides dad, probably not many.

And then, suddenly and with no sort of warning, my perspective changed. I was still looking at a console, but my periphery was totally different. Instead of a foyer with grand door and a mirror and a little table with some flowers and candy, I was outside. The sun was shining, sand squeezed its way in between my toes. This was a good place, this was a happy place, this island.

I looked around… one could see the entire kingdom from here. It wasn't a very large place. You could see it from one end to the other from this island. It was basically a large oblong white rock in the middle of the ocean that had had a crater drilled into it by a giant meteor from the sky. Years of rain and erosion did part of the job of shaping our land, hard work and sculpting tools of our ancestors did the other. And that really exemplified what our society was all about, didn't it? Man and nature, working together to make something great. Most people lived in caves carved out of the sun-bleached rock. They were nice caves, not like a savage or something, it had furniture and stuff, but still, they were in caves. So was the castle, technically. It was carved out of stone, too.

I saw Crystal in the distance, riding Suicune, purifying the lake water. I glanced at the sun dial made of marble to my right. It had the crest of the kingdom on it. It was a minimalist outline of Arceus with lines for a waterfall in the back crashing down at Arceus's feet and swirling off to the side. I had a good amount of time until training. Usually, during this time, a princess would go out and do their duty. I didn't have one yet, so I liked to help out citizens. They appreciated me, and didn't really care much about my lack of magic.

At least, they were respectful enough not to say it to my face.

I ran to the edge of the island and jumped into the lake. So what if I gave Crystal a little extra work today? I wanted to go for a swim. My body went into the water… it was cool, and clean, and beautiful. Crystal and Suicune really were amazing. They could mater something as simple as water so cleansing, something that could bring me peace. This was the kind of power I was supposed to have.

I breached the surface of the water and gasped for air. My hair stuck to my body, and the breeze gave me a slight chill. I had emerged on the south wall of the kingdom, and I did mean wall. There was a large cliff separating me and the kids. I was pretty sure there was a console close to them, but honestly, I felt like climbing.

I jumped up and clung to the cliff wall. I loved to climb, to jump, to swim, to explore. I took the kids exploring. It was something they thought was fun and… encouraged them. These were kids who hadn't bonded to their Pokemon either. They didn't have names either. I wanted to make sure they didn't feel left out. I was there for them.

I swung from rock to rock, working my muscles. I got close to the top, and with one mighty heave, pulled myself up and over onto the ledge. I could at least count on my own body.

"Hey, kids!" I called out, and waited a moment. A minute later, about a dozen little white haired children came out of their homes. These were the late bloomers. I was glad, if nothing else, I was able to comfort these children. They felt the same way I did, not good enough. They tried just as hard as I did to muster up the magical energy to bond with a Pokemon and begin their lives. The royal family had to gather up much more than the citizens, though. If I wasn't in the royal family… I probably would have gotten my Pokemon by now. I could muster up a little, after a lot of hard work, it just wasn't enough.

There were a chorus of greetings from the children. I smiled at them.

"Ready for some adventure, I think I found a way to the outside world." I said, a mischievous smile curling my lips. This world was amazing, but it was a little restricted. There were so many things to find and explore, but there was even more beyond. Like I said, we were in the middle of an ocean, but I knew from books and stories that the world was not the ocean. There were other lands in this world, with other peoples. We didn't try to visit them or trade with them or even associate with them. I always had to wonder why?

"But wait, isn't that dangerous?" One of the kids, a little boy, said.

"Yes." I grinned. "But I know you guys can handle it. Nobody has to go that doesn't want to. Tap out now. There's no shame." I looked around at the kids, their gray eyes staring back at mine. Not a single one said no. Excellent. "Follow me." I gestured for them to follow, then walked off in the direction of the Cascades.

"Hey, miss. I've been working real hard on trying to get some magic, wanna see?" his little eyes were sparkling.

"Yeah, sure." I replied.

He closed his eyes as he walked and… there was a very small, nearly imperceptible mist. He had his eyes closed very tightly… and suddenly he was on the ground. Kid tripped on a rock.

"Whoa, are you ok?" I asked, reaching out toward him. Suddenly, a Pidgey landed on his head, and his hair… turned a chestnut brown, his skin darkened a bit. It was like someone turned up the saturation on this kid, and someone did. The Pidgey did it. This was his familiar. His familiar had finally found him. I grinned I was so… proud of him.

"Yeah, I'm alright, just…" He got up and rubbed his hair, then he looked at his hand, and the Pidgey that landed on it. He gasped and looked down at it. "Are… you…?" The Pidgey hopped up his arm and nuzzled him. His eyes watered and he started crying uncontrollably. I gave him a hug and stroked his hair. I would be lying if said I wasn't a little jealous, even if it was a Pidgey.

"You did it." I said, he nodded and kept crying. "You should run along home and show your folks, ok?" he nodded, held his Pidgey close, and went off. Everyone else waved after him and congratulated him. Maybe he would keep having adventures with us, and maybe he wouldn't. This was the first time something like this had happened. Maybe if he could do this, there was hope for all of us.

"See, we can do it too. Just keep practicing, and keep the spirit of adventure. Now, you guys still good to go?"

I got a chorus of affirmatives. I marched onwards. When we got to the Cascades, I looked back at the kids.

"Last chance…" I said. None of the kids backed down. Good kids. "Ok, you're going to want to make a dash through this waterfall, here. If you aren't fast, you won't get through. Ready?"

"YEAH!"

"LET'S GO!" I yelled, and we ran into the waterfall, bound for adventure. When I got through the waterfall, I saw a cavern, and it went way into the dark. I counted the kids, they were all there. Good.

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 **Adventure ho! Have an awesome day, guys!**


	2. A Taste of Freedom

**Here's chapter two. I don't think I said this at the top, but keep in mind, y'all, that I'm writing 50,000 words of this in 28 days, so I apologize if it isn't super polished. I'll prob go back at some point and polish it. Just posting so y'all can see what I'm up to. Enjoy ^^**

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"How did you find this?" a little girl asked. Despite the fact that we all had white hair and clear eyes, you could clearly tell the difference between us. They were different sizes, had different bone structures, different faces. Usually citizens didn't take so long that they had to differentiate themselves. Most of the adults couldn't tell the difference between these kids.

It was important that they were able to feel like they were still a person. I hoped I was able to do that for them.

"I was trying to see if I could swim upstream on the Cascades. It was pretty difficult, but I managed to get myself in here." I said. It had happened about a week back. I was pretty proud of myself, honestly. The fact that I hadn't heard of this cave before meant I might be the first person to discover it. Something like that… something I could claim as mine, something that I did on my own… that was a major point of pride.

"You're lying." Another boy said, he was a little older, 12, just about.

"Then how do you think I did it?" I asked.

"It's obviously on a royal map." The boy retorted. I hesitated. I… um… I couldn't actually contradict him on that one. I hadn't actually checked any royal maps. Well, I could tell him that I hadn't personally used a map, but I couldn't say it didn't exist on a map.

"It might be, but I didn't use one. I can't prove that, of course, but you believe me, yeah?" I asked.

"Not really." The kid replied. He was just grumpy because the other kid got a Pidgey. I couldn't blame him. His parents didn't pay a whole lot of attention to him.

"Well, we're off. If you have that little faith in me, you can always turn back." I jested. The kids laughed a little. The boy was in a silent little mopey mode, but he didn't leave, either. I knew things were going to get better for him. He just needed to have a little patience and faith, was all.

Then again, who was I to talk about patience and faith? Well, that's why we were brought together, yeah? We understood each other, the lot of us, more or less, anyways.

"Onward, to victory, to the outside world!" I cried, and I was amazed to find just how far my voice echoed. Nobody on the outside of the waterfall, if there was even anyone there, should have been able to hear me, but the Pokemon inside the cave sure could. Bat Pokemon made a fluttering of wings in the distance. My cry, it seemed, wasn't enough to sic them on us… but they definitely knew we were there. Just how long did this cave go?

The truth was, I had no idea if this cave would lead out of the kingdom. I'd tried many caves like this, before, and none of them ever led out. They just ended up being another branch of the catacombs, the caves beneath the kingdom. You weren't supposed to go in there. Not that it was forbidden or anything, it was just, without a map of some sort, you were very likely to get lost. When I was little, I had to get rescued from my adventures quite often. Most of the time, one of my sisters would do it, and I could get them not to tell anyone if I did some stuff for them. Once, though, it was a guard that found me… and he told mom and dad and Archibald. He made me write over and over again that I was not to go into the catacombs without permission. I, of course, just started taking maps with me, and taking shorter trips, so I just didn't need rescue anymore. This cave, though, was one I had never seen before. Even if there was a royal map- Well, actually, no, who cared if there was a map of this cave. We were going to mark the walls, and it would be fine.

There just… there had to be a way out of here. I loved my kingdom, make no mistake about that… I just… From inside the Kingdom, you could smell the salty sea air from the ocean outside, and I wanted to feel it, I wanted to taste it. I wanted to make it a part of me, and my experience. And I wanted these kids, who had nothing for themselves, to have an experience that was wholly unique to us. It would be a part of who we were… our identity, something we shared. Nobody could take that away.

There had to be a way out, there just had to be. Somehow, we got into this crater, and if there was a way in, surely there was a way out.

We walked a little ways in, the cave was rather cramped, and you had to crawl around a bit and support squeeze through some rocks in order to get around, but that was nothing new. We got to the point where the light from the outside was no longer good enough to see with. I look a small device out of my pocket and tossed it gently. It floated next to me, glowing. The kids saw me and followed suit. When it was night and we wanted to get around, if anyone needed to get around for any reason, we would use these. Most people had them, but didn't really need them. Most people just… you know …slept at night, like a normal person would. I found a better use for them, exploring.

The cave seemed to be going steadily upwards. I was proud of these kids, they were really getting some good muscle development in, here. A lot of kids this age couldn't quite do this amount of climbing yet, especially with the new teleportation system in place. It was almost like they didn't have to learn how to climb everywhere, which was a shame. There were so many kids who wouldn't learn, and it was so fun, and their arms wouldn't be as strong. It was a shame.

Suddenly, the cave opened up into a cavern, a big one, too. Big enough that none of our lights could reach the far wall. I didn't have a super good sense of time, so I wasn't exactly sure how long we had been climbing. Besides, there wasn't really a way to tell in here, there was no sun. That's what dad had to invent next, a way to tell time without the use of the sun. I couldn't actually bring that up to him, though, because then he would as why I wanted such a device, and I would have no feasible explanation other than I want to tell time while exploring caves. And he did not exactly approve of my hobby.

That wasn't about to stop me, though. Nothing was about to stop me. The kids spread out.

"Why are we stopping here?" one of the kids asked.

"Sometimes you gotta appreciate things, you know?" I replied. And man, were there some things to appreciate in here. We couldn't see the far walls, but there were sparkling crystals on the wall. At least these crystals didn't give up on you, they couldn't, they weren't conscious, at least in the conventional sense. All nature, all things, had an energy to them. Could that, in a way, be called consciousness? I honestly didn't know.

I inhaled deeply, and exhaled. I smelled… salt… concentrated salt. We were close. We were close to the ocean. I knew there was a world out there that was worth seeing. And if nobody would go out and see it with me, I would go with these kids, and if the kids didn't want to go either, I would go by myself. I would be a… I didn't know the word for it… advocate? Representative. That was it, I would go as a representative of Waterfall Kingdom. I could be anyone I wanted to be.

"You smell that?" I asked.

"Salt." The older boy from before said. "We're close." I nodded in response, a grin on my face. "Or… there's a salt deposit nearby." He frowned.

"Pessimist." I accused.

"Delusional." He retorted.

I liked this kid. The rest were not nearly as talkative or assertive. I sometimes got the feeling they were following just because I was a princess and invited them along. Still, these kind of experiences were important, regardless of how they got to this experience. The rest of them mostly bought into the idea that we were supposed to be clean slates. That… I mean, that worked if you were really little, but when you get to a certain age…you need an identity or you start to get… stifled. I knew because that was what I felt… until I realized that wasn't healthy.

We kept climbing upwards, upwards and outwards. And then…I saw a light. At first, it was just a small pinprick, but as we kept climbing, getting closer, the light got bigger and brighter. Oh wow… was this it? Was this… the thing that I had been searching for? They way out?

I lead the way, and pulled myself up… and then I saw it. The sky was the same, the same azure sky… but the sea… an endless churning blue-green miracle. It was so beautiful… the smell, the noise… the roar of the water lapping against the rock of our kingdom far below. I could go out there… I could just… leave, by myself, or with the kids. I didn't have to go back. I could just… go.

And then I heard a scream coming from behind me and quickly getting further away. That certainly… snapped me out of my rapture. I knew the voice, it was the older boy. I turned around as fast as I could just in time to see him fall out of range of the lights. There were several thuds, and the sound of him moaning when he reached some sort of flat surface.

"NO!" I reached for him but I was already way too late by the time I realized what was happening. "We have to go back…" I said. "Get back down, everyone… we have to get him back, and get him to a healer." The kids were in a terrified silence. I had been the adult of the situation and… a kid got hurt or… worse. No, not worse, even now, I could hear him moaning. He was alive, he would get healed and fight with me another day. Adventure could be dangerous, but you weren't supposed to fall. What even happened?

We carefully climbed back down and grabbed him. He had several broken bones and some cuts, but nothing that was that big a deal. He would be up and about in no time. But, for now, he was in a lot of pain. The rest of the trip went by weirdly. It was almost like I was… disengaged. My heart and mind weren't in it, just a vague consciousness. We brought him back to the Kingdom and to a healer. I sent the children home. They could tell about what had happened or not, it was completely up to them. It didn't matter. The healer we needed was in the castle, which meant everyone would know.

I was grounded, to be confined to the castle and do extra chores. The kid tried to defend me, saying it wasn't my fault and he just slipped and I was being really careful with everyone. Archibald would hear none of it. I would not be able to go cave exploring any more.

The kid was heled and sent home. I apologized many times, but he wouldn't accept it because he said it wasn't my fault. I begged to differ.

"It's time for your lessons." Archibald said, and I perked up a bit. My lessons with Lilly… I liked her. She understood me… she never gave up on me. She was just what I needed at a time like this.

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 **If you enjoyed it, reviews are appreciated, I love hearing from you. And as always, have an awesome day!**


	3. Lessons in Persistence

**Another day, another chapter, as I write this, I'm at 41,000 ish words. Three days to do the other 9000, let's do this (though the story won't end there the way things are going, tbh.)**

 **The child's pov**

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"Another day, another adventure, hm, my dear?" Lilly said. This was the magic tutor, Lilly. Well, she wasn't the only magic tutor, she was just the only one that would still work with me. I drove the others away, one way or another, or they gave up trying to teach me.

She had lightly colored long, unruly air and soft green eyes. Her familiar was a Guardevoir, a humanoid Pokemon that looked like it was wearing a graceful dress and had short cropped green hair. Lilly wore a simple dress. She was very good at magic, although she hadn't given me many demonstrations. Demonstrations of magic didn't actually do much, since just doing certain motions was not enough. It was something on the inside. A demonstration of magic would do nothing but piss me off.

I wasn't in the mood to talk to her. I wasn't in the mood for anything. Trapped in this place… all the guards would be enforcing it, too, Archibald would make sure of it. Trapped in this place… I didn't want to talk to anyone right now, and I especially didn't want to have a magic lesson. Ah yes, having my failures shoved in my face was just the greatest.

"Not in the mood, huh?" She asked.

"Not for magic, no." I frowned.

"Then what am I even here for?" Lilly asked, chuckling a little.

"I wanna talk… well no, I wanna do, I wanna go."

"Calm down a little." Lilly said. "Your breathing."

I regulated my breathing a little better. I realized I had been breathing heavy. I got just a little bit excited when I thought about it, was all. I mean, who wouldn't be? Just about everyone else, that was the problem.

If I could just have different blood, I wouldn't have any of these problems. I would probably already have a familiar, I wouldn't have the eyes of the kingdom on me. I wouldn't be bound by all this convention. I wouldn't have all these expectations on me. I could be out and about, flying with my buddy Flygon. That was my ideal familiar. There was something about Flygons that was so cool to me. Plus, together, we would be able to fly. I wanted to fly so bad…

That was the Pokemon I thought I was always meant to have, but there were two distinct reasons I would never get it. One, Flygon's weren't native to this region. I had never one in person. If anyone had one, I would be all over that. No, I had only seen that particular species in books and a painting or two in the castle. I used to stare at this one particular painting a lot in an armor room. It was a watercolor, and showed a great warrior riding his Flygon, both clad in armor. I asked who it was in the painting, but nobody could identify him. I wanted to be him. Him and the Flygon… so cool… so free. The green desert dragon with red eye guards that looked like it was wearing slipper. Um, anyways, Flygons lived in a place where there was beach without ocean, far away from here. That didn't mean someone here couldn't have a Flygon. The painting had to be of a past citizen of this Kingdom. No, the thing that really screwed me over was my royal blood. It meant I would have a legend for sure. Flygon was not a legend.

"Listen, I know you're upset, but you can't just shut me out, and you can't just roll this off. You are fearless and creative and curious, and I love you for all of that." Here came the 'but.' "But somebody got really hurt today."

"And how was that my fault?!" I exploded. "He said himself it wasn't my fault! They chose to come, they were responsible for themselves! So why am I getting all of this trouble for it?" All I was trying to do was give them a good experience, and a sense of agency.

"Because you're a leader…" Lilly said, calmly. A… leader? "A very good one, too. You can get people rallied behind you. You've been going after this goal of yours for some time, haven't you?" I raised an eyebrow. "Don't think I don't know about your escape attempts. I know why you keep exploring caves.

"I saw it this time, too. I was so close." I grit my teeth and clenched my fist. I couldn't just leave a guy injured… maybe dead. He wasn't dead, as it turned out. But for a sinking moment, I thought he could be. I was… a little resentful that he fell. He had been exploring with me before. Doing something silly like that, falling, he must have messed up real bad, he must have done something stupid. I showed him the way before. It was his fault.

"You were, and I hope one day you get to explore the world to your heart's content. However, the world is a dangerous place by yourself. I know you will get a legend who will help you. And to do that, you need to be able to become a beacon for them."

"Yeah… yeah… but before that. Why does me being a leader make me responsible for his mistake?" I asked.

"Because when you are a leader, you represent your people, and you are responsible for the end result, regardless of the individual contributions to the problem or the solution. Your parents are the same for you and for this kingdom."

"Hm…" That was something to think about, but for now, I had no comment. After a moment of silence, she got the idea.

"Let's move on to our lesson, hm?" She smiled. I crossed my arms, but conceded.

"Sure…" If it would get me closer to my dream, if it would get me closer to the world beyond these cliffs… I would do anything, even these stupid lessons.

"Alright, into position." Lilly instructed.

I stood, my feet about shoulder width apart, my knees slightly bent, my legs relaxed. I tried to rid myself of all muscular tension, well, unnecessary muscular tension, you needed some tension to be able to stand and the like. I put my shoulders back, my chin slightly down, and lengthened my spine. Then I closed my eyes. This was a neutral position, from which all could flow through you. That was another important thing about magic, and maybe this was one place where I was getting tripped up. Magic… didn't come from inside you, it came from the nature around you. The person acted more as a… um… what did she call it… a magnifier, an echo chamber? You merely focused and channeled the energy around you into magic.

I… couldn't get that. I don't know why, I just… no matter how many times someone tried to get that concept through my thick head. I mean, it made sense in my head, but actually doing it actually… Getting my body and mind to work together to get it done. I did all the visualization exercises, I talked to my sisters, even though they were very condescending about it. All of them tried to describe it to me, and it sounded exactly like what the teachers said. If was all vague metaphors and feelings and the unconscious. And I loved a good metaphor but it didn't help. I took supplements some self-proclaimed guru said would increase my magic prowess. It just gave me digestion problems. I tried putting myself in life or death situations a few times because I heard that if you did that, your familiar would come out and save you. It wasn't true. Lilly had to save me. And each and every time, she told me I just needed to keep working on my magic. There wasn't some crazy shortcut. I just had to keep doing the drills, doing the exercises. It was… incredibly frustrating.

All these thoughts, bouncing around my head, I needed to let them pass. I couldn't be a vessel for magic if I was too full with my own thoughts. I relaxed and put my fingers together. I concentrated on my breathing. That had been another huge roadblock for me, figuring out how to get my thoughts out of my head. Every time I tried, I would find myself thinking about not thinking, or thinking about some other random thing. I could manage moments of silence, but not much more than that, before some sneaky thought would make its way into my brain. The solution was that I had to replace my distracting thoughts with focused thoughts, specifically, my breathing.

Then, came the visualization part. I had no trouble imagining things, but the visualization that was being asked of me was something a little… more, than just imagining. It was also feeling things. I asked my sisters and parents. Apparently, it got easier with time, an automatic action that felt like an extension of the mind. I had never even gotten close to that frame of mind.

I tried the image that made the most sense to me, a windmill. The wind would move through the windmill, the windmill didn't have to do anything on its own except stay loose and movable. The wind would do all the work. They were used as a source of power, generating power by just letting the wind move through it.

I could feel Guardevoir's small, somewhat plantlike arms going over my shoulders and back and legs, signaling for me to relax those muscles more. I did tend to tighten up those muscles when I was concentrating hard. But then I relaxed my mind a little as well. If I concentrated too much, it wouldn't work either. It was a nearly impossible balancing act. I honestly had no idea how so many people found this so easy?!

"Calm down. You're thinking. Focus on your breathing." Lilly said. This was probably about the fiftieth time she had to remind me that in this week alone. She had a seemingly unlimited well of patience. I wouldn't have been even a tenth as patient if I had to teach myself.

"You're thinking." Lilly said again, in that same, calm tone of voice. I focused on my breathing and relaxed, in and out… picturing the windmill. I did nothing but that for a few seconds.

"Very nice. You're doing well. Visualize a beacon."

A beacon, the thing I had to do, that I had never been able to. Lilly stopped trying to teach me other spells a long time ago so we could focus entirely on this. Beacon magic was just what we had to do to show our familiar Pokemon where to go. Without that, they are not able to find us and bond with us. I wasn't entirely sure why… and I didn't think anyone really knew how it worked, but it worked. That was what the kid did with the slight mist just before his Pidgey found him. A bright light going out into the world.

I concentrated on it, and at the same time stayed relaxed. I tried to feel the energy of the world around me flow through me to generate the magic I needed so badly. I stayed that way for a while. Then, slowly but surely, I started to see some light through my eyelids. Not a very bright light, but light. I wasn't completely incompetent, I could do something… it just wasn't enough for a royal.

"Sense the world around you. What do you hear… what do you smell… let it fuel you."

I did as she asked… a musty library, books, dust, that smell that paper had.

"Actually, let's try… sense the world outside, the lake, the air, the waterfalls. Sense that, you may have a stronger connection."

I would have an even stronger connection if I could actually GO outside.

"Stop thinking about your thoughts." Lilly gently instructed. She… had an eye for this, huh? I was tired of this… but fine, I would give it a shot.

The salt of the air, the lake, the wind in my hair… the ocean… running through me, flying through me. And then suddenly there were hands on my shoulder.

"You've done it, my child! You've done it! That beacon was strong enough, they will see you! Oh… I'm so proud. I know, I always knew…" She embraced me, and she was… crying? And I was crying?

I couldn't believe this was real… I could finally have the ceremony… I could finally begin my life… wow.

"Let's practice a few more times to make sure you can repeat it, ok?" Lilly asked. I couldn't talk, I was all choked up. I merely nodded in return.

* * *

 **Huzzah, she did the thing, she won the points, go her! Leave a fav or follow if you enjoyed and a review, your words mean so much to me, And as always guys, have an awesome day!**


	4. The Ceremony

**I managed to do the 50,000 in a month but the story wasn't finished after 50,000 by a long shot. Did I already say this I forget? Anyways, yay, the kid did it and now will have a name and stuff!**

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I felt like the entire kingdom had gathered to watch me mess up again. I stood on a marble slab, raised only slightly above the rushing water of the Cascades. I felt the lines etched into the marble with my bare feet. There was an intricate carving of our Kingdom's crest in the marble, which I was staring at to try to avoid the thousands of stares coming directly at me.

This was supposed to be a joyous occasion. Really, it was. And… I was excited for it… It's just… It was about five years too late.

I was 17, and I was only just now having my legend bonding ceremony. We got our Pokemon familiars according to what was in our hearts and souls, according to my teachers. I wondered what legend I would get. I could feel them staring at me. I was sure at least half the people here thought this ceremony would never happen.

You were supposed to have the ceremony no later than 12 years old. I was 17. So, that meant, for 17 years of my life, I lived as a blank slate, a child in everyone else's eyes. I had white straight hair, that I had not been able to style in any way. My eyes were gray, almost see-through. I didn't have a name. I didn't have an identity, at least, not one that other people recognized. I doubted they couldn't see me, they knew I had developed my own personality. For a while there, I was convinced I would never develop the magic required to take part in this ceremony. You were supposed to stay a clean slate until you received your familiar, and then start growing into your own person from there with the help of your familiar. Since I thought I would never be standing here… I took matters into my own hands.

But I did it… I worked day and night, studied for hours on end with the best teachers the royal family could offer up. I even tried some alternative methods of increasing my magical prowess that I'm not proud of and weren't particularly safe. There wasn't time in the world to list everything I tried. My life had been focused on this singular thing… that and adventuring. Even with all I gave to increase my magic, for the longest time, nothing happened. Everyone had given up on me. I… had almost given up on me. Lilly didn't give up on me, though. And because of her, I was here.

I inhaled, and exhaled very slowly. I was here. The restless murmuring of the crowd quieted as my dad took his place on the riverbank. Well, on the riverbank wasn't exactly the right wording, more like floating above the riverbank. My dad the king. I hadn't seen him for what felt like days, and I wouldn't see him in days more, and now, when I was seeing him… it was in his full official robes, purple cape and all. He was in full king mode. It would have been nice to see him in dad mode. That would be the icing on the cake for today. But that was fine. I was about to get a best friend, I was about to finally be accepted as a full member of society, as a proper member of the royal family.

"My people, I am proud to be able to gather you all here today in elemental harmony in order to celebrate the bonding of my sixth born daughter to her companion Pokemon, to her legend. Today, the council of legends, under the mighty rule of Arceus, will choose one of their own young to join the princess on her life's journey. Today, she will be born anew."

I gulped, nearly imperceptibly. Born anew, what did that mean exactly? I was me. Would I still be me tomorrow? I glanced quickly at my sisters, lined up obediently behind my father, the king. They each wore a silk gown with their respective gems or precious metals woven in. They each stood next to their legend. I had watched each of my sisters in turn go through this ceremony. I knew approximately what to expect. Dad would go on for a long time, then I would demonstrate proof of my magic… then a projection of the legend would rush at me. I was not allowed to show fear, even though a giant creature would look like it was smacking right into me. Our souls would intertwine or something, and I would receive my identity. Then I would go to the catacombs to meet with the oracle, not to return for many hours. And then… I'd start training with my particular magical skills, and start specializing, and figure out who I was. I would be able to defend myself in the outside world. And life would… begin.

"Let us now bow our heads and pray… for safety and favor." Everyone bowed their heads and closed their eyes, including me.

Arceus, please… bring me a companion, bring me acceptance in this world. Grant me, please, the power to go see the world and return home and have a place in this world and this society. Bring me my happiness. I've been waiting so long…

I finished my silent prayer and opened my eyes, waiting for everyone else to finish as well. I fidgeted nervously in my white silk dress, while people still had their eyes closed. I was supposed to look all composed, but really… this was scary. Exciting, sure, it was supposed to be exciting for me. I was going into the unknown. No matter how good things might be on the other side of this, no matter how much the unknown excited me… But, would I lose myself. As good as everything could be from now on. What would be the point if I wasn't me to experience it? Nobody had lost their identity before… but nobody had really had much of an identity before. I couldn't back down now, though. Everyone was watching. Everyone was always watching.

After what must have been a solid five minutes, the king and his Mewtwo opened their eyes, and soon, so did the rest of the kingdom. The actual prayer we were supposed to be saying was quite a bit longer, but, uh… honestly, I didn't think the whole thing would do anything more than the honest yearnings of my soul. A soul that was about to be altered by mixing with another.

"My daughter will now demonstrate her magical abilities as an offering to the council of legends. She will become a beacon for her legend to find her. May the light guide them safely here." My dad cued me.

The world became quiet as all attention focused on me. I glanced over again. My sisters were waiting to see if I would be able to do it or not. That was what everyone was here to see… if I would be able to manage something as simple as gathering up a sufficient magical aura. It was a sort of… beacon, for the legend. Lilly was in the crowd with her Guardevoir. The two of them still had their heads bowed and their hands clasped. They were… praying for me. I might have felt like it was condescending if I didn't know they wanted what was best for me. She put in so much time, just for me. I didn't know what I did to deserve someone like her and Guardevoir. Even when I gave her sass, and rebelled, and all sorts of things I did, all the times I disappointed her. Even now, she was rooting for me. I couldn't let her down now…

I took a deep breath and centered myself. I felt the warm sun on my face, heard the rushing of water at my feet, the breeze coming off the water. We drew our power from nature, especially from the lake. I looked out into the lake, which the cascades emptied into. I wanted to jump in and just… escape all this pressure. They would not have let me do the ceremony if my teacher didn't think I would be able to do it. This was the time. This was my time.

I put my pointer fingers and thumbs together and intertwined the other figures. The pointer finger represented humans, the thumbs represented our Pokemon counterparts, and the other fingers represented the unconscious energy of the world that we drew from and acted upon. The energy held us aloft, the Pokemon were right behind us, granting us power we could never have otherwise, and we lead the way. It was a hand gesture meant to ground and focus you for magic. Although I wasn't sure I had it in me to lead the way, if that meant being responsible for other people's mistakes… I had enough of my own.

Stop it, stop it. I had to stop thinking my thoughts and concentrate, or this wouldn't work. I focused and centered myself, tuning out the people here, tuning out myself… focusing only on the world around me. The windmill, the beacon…

I still struggled to feel the energy from nature that was supposed to fuel me. That thing that was so, just, second nature to my entire family…was foreign to me. I visualized the breeze going through me, bouncing around, generating power, staying loose…and the ocean, always moving.

And then, finally… I saw a faint glow from behind my eyelids. Thank Arceus. Was this enough, though? I had no way of knowing. Ever so slowly, I lifted my eyelids. Too fast, and I could end up losing my focus. If that happened, anything I may have conjured up would be lost. Ever so slowly… the world came into focus. There was a white glow in the periphery of my vision, and my whole body vibrated slightly. I was doing it! Now all I had to do was keep it up and wait.

That was easier said than done. I kept my breathing steady and my mind focused on the nature around me, flowing in and around me. I kept my eyes open for any sign of a legendary Pokemon. It could come from anywhere… the earth, the sea, the sky, it could open a portal, or just… appear out of nowhere. I didn't know what I was hoping for… I didn't have a preference for any particular legend, as long as they would be able to explore with me. I just wanted someone. No, I wanted something that could go, fly or swim…

Stop it, if I lost focus, all would be lost. I would be humiliated in front of everyone.

As the seconds ticked by, I started to get exhausted. I was pathetic. This wasn't even that strong a beacon… probably the reason this was taking so long… and I was already exhausted. I couldn't give up. Everyone needed to see that I could handle this simplest of magics. If I couldn't even do this right, what hope was there for me? I doubled down my efforts. I had to keep this going. I could rest afterward. Fueled by sheer force of will, the white lights in the corner of my eyes grew brighter.

And then… up in the sky, I saw it… in the clear azure sky, a small green dot. I saw it before anyone else, and at first I thought I was seeing things, but then the green dot got bigger, and then it turned into a squiggly line. I… I knew what Pokemon that was. Rayquaza, the ruler of the sky, who lived high in the sky, almost in space. I was going to have a dragon! Take to the skies and fly! Freedom! Adventure! My mind raced. I would fly with him, and we would be together, and I wouldn't be alone, and I would finally have my place.

The green line stopped midair. Rayquaza… stopped midair? What? I squinted really hard, trying to figure out what was going on up there. And then there was a giant dragon in my face, mouth open and teeth barred. It slammed directly into me and I screamed, stumbling backwards.

I fell into the river. Suddenly, I was soaked, my vision went watery, and my stomach shuddered as I fell down the cascades and made a final, unimpressive splash into the lake.

The crowd gasped. I was humiliated. I looked up at where I had just been standing. Rayquaza was there, although much smaller than the projection. He looked down at me with an unreadable expression. After a moment, I felt myself being lifted back onto the platform by Mewtwo. I wasn't hurt, at least. All I had felt was a gust of wind and a hot wash of shame. This was the least proper thing I had ever done. It was only a few days since the incident with the kid falling in the cave, and now this… Nobody said anything, but I knew what they were thinking. The Dud did it again. She managed to mess it up again. My whole life was a series of mistakes. But the way in which that happened… there was no way that was my fault.

I glared at my sisters, specifically Diamond. I knew it was her. She used her power to manipulate time in order to make me look like a fool. Just because she was the youngest to have her ceremony at the age of six. She had already had her identity for a decade, and she still felt the need to steal the show! Or did she just want to mess with me, at a time like this?! Couldn't she just let me have this?! Rayquaza was supposed to come steadily. It would still have been scary, but bearable. Diamond skipped time forward for me so that it would look like a huge monster was suddenly in my face. To everyone else, it would just look like I was a coward. I wanted to run away, but it still wasn't over. I was just trying to keep my tears in at this point. She wasn't going to get away with this.

Dad cleared his throat so that everyone would be quiet and stop saying things about me.

"My citizens, I present to you… my sixth born daughter… Emerald, and her legend, Rayquaza. May Arceus guide your lives together."

The applause was tepid at best, and then, everyone awkwardly dispersed. I guessed they sort of forgot about the exalted speeches, leaving me to meet Rayquaza.

* * *

 **To the person who said to give her Latias/Latios I forget which, that was a good idea, but it doesn't fit with what I'm trying to do as well. Hope you enjoyed and as always guys, have an awesome day!**


	5. Unchosen Chosen One

**And now we turn to the Rayquaza, and find out what's up with him in his pov, his name is Ray, creative, yeah? Enjoy!**

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I shook my head clear of… whatever that just was. A dream, Ray, it was a dream… but a dream of what? Something about… the ceremony?

The ceremony… right… I sighed, stretching my body out after a long night's rest. I looked up at the large window near my bed. The sun was already high in the sky. I was allowed to sleep as late as I wanted, I already had all the training I could possibly hope to get. I could even teach others if they showed up.

Right, so, I should probably explain, my situation was a little weird. I lived in this world filled with Pokemon… nothing but Pokemon. There were no humans around, not here. Humans were in another world, going about their business. Their world has Pokemon too, but they are… a little different than us. For instance, my species, Rayquaza, in that world they were huge, antisocial, territorial, and lived up way up near space.

Me and the others I knew had the same outward appearance as our other-world cousins, but that was about where the similarities ended. We were much smaller, about seven feet in length when fully grown. I liked to fly up high in the sky. I could eat the meteors and space dust, but why do that when I could eat delicious food? This was a castle, after all, with its own chef and everything. It would be a waste to NOT eat it.

The reason we were different in this world and that world… well… I honestly had no idea. Maybe there wasn't as much space? Maybe there was just no need to get any bigger? Maybe we were actually a slightly different species that looked the same but smaller and had the same name? No, that sounded stupid.

The other thing that separated us from our other-world counterpart was our relationship with humans. We were able to join our souls with that of a human. However, not everyone was allowed to. The council of legends, the sort of… supporting ruling body underneath the king, decided who would be bonded with a member of the ruling family. This Pokemon was labeled a chosen one and whisked off to this palace to receive training and live a charmed life until we got the call to go. Nobody had any idea exactly when that would happen, because we could only bond with the humans when they were ready; when they had sufficient magical ability to pull it off.

Once we were called for, we were to follow a beacon the royal family member would give off as part of the ceremony. It would take us to a different dimension, in a world where our kind were very rare and different. They called us legendary Pokemon. Apparently, we were quite a bit more sturdy and powerful than the typical Pokemon of that world. We were respected all across both worlds. To be chosen… was a great honor.

I was called, years ago now. I was called to the palace, along with a handful of others. The royal family had nine princesses, nine of them! There usually weren't that many chosen ones at once, so, for a while, the palace was petty crowded. There was space for all of us, sure. However… hallways, the hallways were not designed for more than two of us side by side, well, I could probably squeeze by. I was a rather skinny creature, a sky serpent of sorts. We had some pretty good times, them and I… and some not as good times. I didn't get along with all my fellow chosen ones.

But… that was a story for another day. They were all gone now, gone to live out their destiny with their princess. I was the only one of them left. Let's see… first Dialga left, then Raikou, Suicune, Groudon and Kyogre, Entei, Palkia, and finally, Giratina. And then I waited for my turn… and waited… and waited.

And nothing happened.

I had no idea what was wrong. I waited… years, and I was never called to the other world. I tried asking the council of legends, the king… everyone. Nobody knew what was going on. We didn't actually have a lot of contact with that world, that's why we needed guidance to actually get there. And when you went there…you went there for the rest of your life. Nobody came back from the other world, but they were given highest honors. I had said goodbye to my family… but since it had been so long, they started to visit. In fact, they visited so much, the king invited them to live here, ma and pa and my little brother.

And well, I just sort of gave up on the whole chosen one thing. Everyone did, and that wasn't a bad thing by any means. The king liked me, I helped around the palace and went around and talked to citizens and helped them out, and I lived in a palace with my family! But, best of all-

"Ray… you in there, sleepy?" a cute, feminine voice said. That voice that warmed my heart… the princess of this world. We were set to be married soon, tomorrow, actually. I noticed her the day I got here, but suppressed me urge to go after her. I knew that soon I would be gone from this world forever. It would be foolish to make such a strong attachment to someone in this world. However, once I gave up on ever being called… I was free to court her. She quickly admitted that she had eyes for me for quite a while, too.

So, yeah, I wasn't going to be a chosen one. Something must have happened to my princess or something…but I was going to marry my love, become prince, and, eventually, be crowned the next ruler of this world. Not a bad trade if I do say so myself.

"Yes I am, Mel." I said, and chuckled. I finished my stretching and floated over to the door, opening it up for her. She was in a chipper mood, as usual. It brightened the room. My little Shaymin. The cutest little bush hedgehog you've ever seen. She jumped up on my head.

"TO BREAKFAST!" She declared, a childish giggle slipping out of her mouth.

"To breakfast." I smiled back at her, and started to fly through the halls of the palace, the walls made of stones. The two of us maybe weren't the most likely couple, and we had definitely gotten some comments about the difference in our size. That was a challenge sometimes. I had to be careful with her so I didn't accidently squish her or something like that. Still, we found a way around any difficulties. We were in love, after all. She loved to fly on my back, and I loved to wrap around her loosely. I was a cold blooded creature, and she a warm blooded creature. So, even though she was small, her warmth felt amazing… she was soft too. Her personality though, was what really won me over. She was... an eternal optimist, finding happiness in simple things. She found pleasure in helping out her citizens. She was a model princess.

I only hoped I could be half as good a husband for her, or half as good a leader for my people. I had been studying a lot about the laws of this world and the duties of the king in preparation. I was to be made prince two days from now, and after that it was anyone's guess when king Mewtwo would retire. He was getting along in years, and being king took its toll on a person. I was eager to serve my people, though.

For now, I would just have to settle for being king of Mel's heart… and king of the breakfast table. I flew faster, the walls now rushing by, and them it opened up into a huge dining hall, featuring a beautifully crafted wooden table, carved by a Shiftry, an excellent woodworker.

Around the table already were my family, the king, and some noble lords and ladies. We all gathered around to feast. This was truly a life lived to the fullest. I could be humble, sure, but who could deny how good palace food was. There were fruits and nuts and roots of every kind, plus meat, lots of it, seasoned to perfection. Every meal was like this…much more fulfilling than space dust, I would say. Those other-world grumpy Rayquaza didn't know what they were missing out on.

All the leftovers, and there was often a lot that didn't get eaten, was distributed to those who needed food. We were not about to waste it. After all, so much effort went into harvesting and cooking the food, we couldn't just let it go to waste. Was it… strange of us? Were we actually looking down on them by offering scraps? I didn't think of it that way, we were sharing the bounty.

I slowed dramatically as I came to the table and drifted right into my spot. Then I lowered my head and let Mel off on her seat. Before she hopped off, she gave my head a little kiss. It made me really happy.

"Thank you, Ray." She said… she made me really happy.

"It's a pleasure, my lady." I said. I really hit the jackpot with her… I didn't know what I deserved to get such a good lot in life. It felt like I didn't do a thing to earn it, and yet here I was, a chosen one in a palace about to be a prince to the most perfect princess on the planet. There had to be a catch, but there wasn't. My life was blessed… and so, as often as I could, I set out to be a blessing for others… especially Mel.

"To my people…to my man, the future." Meliae … Mel's official name, made a toast. Hehe… I was a little embarrassed. People gave me way more attention than I thought I deserved. It was still nice, but it was strange.

"To the good of the world, and my little lady." I chimed in.

"To good health!" my mother chirped in.

"To… your union." Mewtwo said in his deep, resonant voice. He was so much more of a leader than me, though he insisted that was only because of years of experience. I wasn't sure I could live up to him. Under his leadership the Kingdom had thrived. But, I couldn't doubt myself so much. He wouldn't have let me marry his daughter if he didn't think I would make a good leader. I just had to keep working at it.

We dug in… delectable fruits, grains… vegetables… meats… I didn't know why I was so focused on the food exactly. I guess I was just… appreciative. I looked over at Meliae, Arceus… she was even adorable when she stuffed her face. I really was hopeless here.

Little girl had a big stomach, too. Sometimes bigger than mine, in fact. There had been multiple meals where I stopped eating and she was still hungry, so I gave her my meal. Maybe that was how Rayquaza survived for so long in space in that other world, they didn't get hungry, much. But Arceus, what a lonely existence! I had no idea what I would do without all my companions, without Mel. She couldn't even survive up that high, not enough air for her.

Today was such a day. I gave Mel my meal after a few bites, and she finished it off with gusto. Then I got up and stretched a little more, getting the digestion going. Now it was time to go give out the extra food and make the rounds around the palace grounds. Many Pokemon were already gathered for the wedding, come from far and wide… and I wanted to see all of them.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed, as always, friends, have an awesome day!**


	6. Community Service

**Ray's POV, enjoy!**

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"Ray! How's it going, buddy? How's it been?" A chorus of greetings met me at the palace gates. There were separate greetings for the princess as well. There were a few out there jealous of me. Shaymin had amassed quite the fandom. I wasn't the jealous type, though. I knew her eyes were for me, and me alone. I had faith in her. She made a happy little chirping sound, perched atop my head.

There were all manners of Pokemon around, Groudon, Kyogre, Entei, Suicune, Raikou, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, all of the species the chosen ones represented were here, along with dozens more. All of the Pokemon the other word considered legendary Pokemon, we were quite common here.

These were my people, this was where I belonged. I loved this life.

"Hello everyone, how's it going?" I asked. There was a general positive consensus. I was glad. I gripped the basket I had in my hands a bit tighter. I knew they took notice of it. I knew they wanted the food inside, it was the best food in the kingdom. The first to get it though, would always be the people who had a hard time getting food. The citizens knew that, and those less fortunate were the people that were up front.

"Is that all?" a young Mew girl asked. The Mew wee small, pink, floating cats with long feet and a long tail. Her skin looked a bit pale, like she wasn't all that well-nourished or stayed inside a lot or was sick or something?

"No, of course not." Shaymin said, a smile even in her voice. "There's more. This is just the first basket." I frowned imperceptibly. She was lying, this was all we were planning on bringing out. It was a pretty big basket. I actually had a little bit of trouble carrying it out here. But… then again, there weren't usually this many citizens around the palace.

What usually happened was we brought out the basket and maybe a couple people came to partake in the food, then we would go for a fly through the surrounding area. It was good quality time spent together, and we were able to sometimes meet some citizens on the way and help them out. It was always a very peaceful morning.

This morning, however, there were at least a hundred Pokemon on the palace grounds alone. We didn't have that much extra food, but that was just like our princess, wasn't it? She didn't want to disappoint anybody. She had compassion that exceeded her years, compassion and wisdom. At times like this, you just sort of had to go with the flow with her on these things.

"Start eating up, we'll go get more. Come on, Ray." I turned around and went back into the palace gates. As soon as the doors were shut, Shay jumped off my head on the ground, in order to talk to me face to face.

"Hehe… there certainly are a lot of people who came to help us celebrate our marriage… I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting this many people this early. I guess that means there's a lot of mouths to feed." She had a troubled expression on her face.

"We can ask the kitchen to make some extra today?" I suggested.

"Yeah… Yeah! It wouldn't hurt to ask, anyways." Shay perked up. We went further into the castle towards the kitchen. There were about a dozen chefs running around, mostly fire and water type Pokemon. Their natural abilities played into the cooking of food very well. There were a few others with varying types, like a Darkrai, a shadowy creature. He was passionate about cooking, and really good at it, too. He just needed the use of tools that some of the others did not, and the king was happy to provide.

Turns out that a wedding requires a lot of food, so much they couldn't make it completely fresh that day. So they were making some of it now, and they were making meals for us… and now we wanted them to feel the people outside. Maybe… this wasn't the best of ideas. But Matie was determined.

"Attention chefs." She said, even though her voice was soft and sweet, it held great authority. Actually, it was those qualities that gave her authority. People wanted to listen to her. They all stopped what they were doing and turned towards her.

"Yes, my princess?" The Darkrai said, the head chef. I was… just a little embarrassed that I did not know his name.

"There are a lot of people outside, and the basket from breakfast…isn't going to cover them all. Is there any way to get any extra over there?" Shay asked. The Darkrai looked around a bit nervously, as the activity in the kitchen stopped.

"Uh… princess… while I admire your compassion for our visitors outside… We are a little swamped in here. It seems the entire kingdom is coming to see the two of you wed… and we need every bit we have to prepare meals.

"Hm…" Mel probably didn't think about that. The chefs stood silent, awaiting orders. The chefs. When I took a good look at them, they looked exhausted. They were doing the very best they could. They were working very hard.

"Is there any way we could help you make more? Help you in here?" I asked.

"Uh… uh sure! There's plenty you could help with. But, you don't need to, Ray. You should be out serving the citizens, cooking is our job, you know?"

"You are citizens, too. We insist upon helping you." Mel chirped.

And that was how Shay and I spent the morning wearing chef hats and cooking together. I ended up cutting a lot of meat with my claws, and mixing and bringing ingredients to various chefs. They had me do a lot of heavy lifting, but it was something I was more or less used to. I was pretty strong, if I did say so myself, and I volunteered that strength often, or other people volunteered it for me. Shay did some seasoning and such. I was kind of focused on what I was doing. She seemed cheerful, though. I just hoped that when she was queen, she wouldn't be so distracted by the trees to see the forest. The leaders of a kingdom had an important job to keep everything running smoothly. We couldn't do things like this every day, once we ruled. I hoped she would be ok with that. I was prepared for it, though. The king had taken me as an apprentice. I knew what I would have to do. I would just enjoy moments like this while I could, was all.

In the end, because of our contribution, we were able to bring out three or four baskets more of food. It was very satisfying to see the looks on their faces, hear their gratitude. Especially the Mew from before. She gave us each a kiss on the forehead.

"Thank you for thinking of us. May Arceus bless the both of you, and your union." She said.

"May he bless you, as well." I replied.

It only seemed natural to us to serve our people to the best of our abilities, and share our wealth and blessings with the masses as best we could. The current king treated them well, too. However, the king before him was…not quite as kind, no, not quite as kind. He taxed high and gave a lot to his powerful friends, all but ignoring the masses. There had been a revolution, and I had been a part of it. Just a small part, one of the commoners revolting along with thousands of others, but I was there, and I knew how to care for the people.

We spent the rest of the day helping various citizens. There were things they had lost, disputes that needed settling. One Rayquaza wanted an autograph and then asked us to help him find every pinecone…that one was a little weird.

We returned to the palace after hours out and about. Like I said before, my strength was volunteered a couple of times. That particular part, I wouldn't miss, although I guessed it helped keep the body strong. Still, kings had a lot less physical labor they had to worry about. Kings had a lot more to worry about concerning responsibility, though.

Arceus, I was tired. Being out in the sun all day probably helped with that. By the time we got back to the palace gates, I was almost too tired to keep flying and the sun had almost set. There weren't usually this many people around to help. And they were all there just to see us. It was weird… it sort of… put things into perspective. Or maybe not. My mind was going a little haywire. I really needed some sleep.

"Let's just get you inside and onto a bed, ok?" Mel said. "Here, since we're here, I can get off now and lighten the load." She jumped off of me. I didn't bother to tell her that her weight barely made any sort of difference. She felt like she was helping, this way, and I was glad to let her.

I limply floated inside, and headed for my room. I couldn't retire for the night, just yet, but I did need some rest. I ignored anyone who may have talked to me, and floated right into my bed. It felt so nice on me…and then I passed out.

* * *

 **As always guys, have an awesome day!**


	7. Moonlight Rendezvous

**Ray's pov, hope you enjoy, friendos ^^**

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"Mm… Mel, dearest… you there?" I mumbled, stretching and starting to wake up. I got no response, so I looked around. Right, I passed out on the bed, Mel was probably awake and somewhere else. I looked out the window. It was dark out, but not that dark. It was not the dead of night, the moon was still low in the sky, and you could see the last vestiges of day clinging to the sky before they surrendered to the night.

My, sleepy Ray was pretty poetic, huh? It was pretty easy to do that when I had such a great muse. Speaking of muse, I should go find mine. It wasn't so late that she was asleep, already, I was sure. I lazily floated out of my room. My body was still a bit sore, but I was mostly rested up. I really needed that nap.

"Master Ray?" A Mew asked. The difference between the two, this Mew and the Mew Mel and I met earlier today, was stunning. This one, her name was Emilia, was a maid in the palace. She was very proper, dignified, a healthy pink, and actually a little bigger than the one we saw before. She was a darker pink, too. It was sometimes remarkable how different two Pokemon of the same species could be so different. I mean, personality wise, sure we were different, but physically… well, she was so different because of environmental factors, wasn't she? Someone malnourished is going to look different than someone living in a palace. Maybe I just didn't know what I was talking about.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Is there anything you need?" She had a slight accent which made her sound fancy. She gave the impression somehow that this was a put on accent.

"Not right now, I'm just looking for Mel."

"She's in the garden, my lord." Emilia said. She gave a little bow and started to float off, but then hesitated. "Are you sure there's nothing else?" She asked.

"No, why do you ask."

"Your face, it's, uh… never mind." Emilia said, then turned away quickly. "Good evening, Master Ray." Then she floated away at a rather fast and unnaturally stiff. What in the world was wrong with her? Oh well, she told me what I wanted to know. Was something with my face? I felt my face… nothing seemed wrong with it. Maybe it was a facial expression she was noticing? I had no idea. Maybe she sensed that I was nervous, just a little bit. That was one reason I wanted to be sure I saw Mel before she went to bed.

Just as promised, I found my little lady in the palace garden, which was in the palace courtyard. There were all manners of flowers and plants, a carefully sculpted stone fountain, and circular stone benches around it, four of them. Each bench had a carving in it that indicated which direction it was facing. Meliae was on the one that faced east. She did not see me approach. She was looking up at the sky, transfixed on something in the distance, it looked like. I almost didn't want to disturb her, but this was about the last chance to talk. I needed to get this out of my head, and I'm sure she had some things to tell me, too. Things weren't so serious, though, that I could not joke around a little.

"My lady…?" I asked, in the same sort of affected accent that Emilia had.

"Wuh… huh?!" Mel jumped a little, so light, it seemed, that she didn't fall back down to the bench, but floated down, the tiny leaves on her back fluttering slightly from the movement. She turned around to see me and almost immediately started to giggle. That wasn't the reaction I had been expecting, however. She was laughing harder than she should have been at my joke… so either there was something weird up with her or… I didn't know, maybe I accidentally struck comedy gold way better than I thought I did.

"What? I know I'm funny, but just a joke doesn't do that much for you, does it?" I asked. I kept a light tone, although I was actually slightly concerned. If I was too concerned about her, she would start to get concerned about me, and then we would be in a never ending concern loop.

"Look in the reflecting pond… your face!" Mel was still having a giggle fit. My face… again with my face? What? What was it? I looked in the reflection pond, my own face staring back at me… with a mustache and whiskers drawn on my face in marker. Oh, that was the game, huh? That was what was so funny. That was probably why Emilia had turned and left so quickly and stiffly as well. She was trying not to laugh at me in front of my face, out of respect for me. That was nice of her, although the nicer thing would have been to tell me there was a drawing on my face so I could wash it off. But maybe, just maybe, she was told to not tell me.

After all, the one who committed this deed was undeniably the giggling orb of princess in front of me right now. She wanted to see her handiwork, no doubt, and so she silenced the maid so I would reach her with mustache and whiskers intact.

I took some of the water from the pool with my hand and rubbed it on my face until it was clean again.

"Aww…" Mel slumped in mock disappointment.

"Now what if I didn't catch this and we got married while I had a mustache on my face?" I asked, jokingly scolding her like a little kid.

"Then it would be hilarious and the best thing ever!" Mel exclaimed. I chuckled in return, and it faded into silence for a few moments. "You were just so fast asleep, I couldn't help it." Mel said, after a while.

"Oh? You watched me while I slept and decided, you know what this face is missing? A marker mustache and whiskers."

"Of course. Everyone could use that, don't you think? Besides, can't have you being too cute while you sleep. I wouldn't be able to stand it." Me laughed a little, and then we faded into silence again and simply looked up.

There was a full moon out and the stars twinkled and danced in the sky. Her eyes were like the stars, her heart was like the moon, full and big and bright. But… I was a little nervous.

"Do you suppose, Mel, that we will keep being happy like this?" I asked, voicing the thoughts that had been bubbling underneath my skin for some time. Some things I wanted to stay, and how I felt right now with Meliae. And I was a little worried. Tomorrow would be a big transition. We would be getting married, and I would be declared the official heir to the throne. And… I wasn't sure what would come with that. For a long time, I had enjoyed this lifestyle, but tomorrow, everything would change. My training under the king would become more intense. Once I was declared the heir, he wasn't planning on staying king much longer. Would we have time to be like this? Would we have time to enjoy each other's company… or would we be too busy running the kingdom to have any fun. All responsibility and no fun. I wasn't sure. No I knew from the training I had already there would be at least a little time, but, I don't know… I was nervous.

"Ray. It's going to be ok. You are going to be a great king and an even better husband, believe me. You just have to be yourself. I love you, and I want to do this. There will be time, we will find it together. I will be there to help you every step of the way." Mel said. Wow, she was amazing. She was more than I did to deserve. Of course, that just meant I had to step up my game and do something great to be worthy of her.

"Thank you. Are you ready for tomorrow?" I asked. She hesitated before speaking.

"As ready as I'm going to be. It's exciting, and I love you, but I can't help but be a little… um… apprehensive. I have no doubts about you, none at all. Just… this is the unknown. Beyond this, I mean, beyond tonight is the unknown. What will we find on the other side of forever?"

"That's a little philosophical." I pointed out.

"Maybe, it just sort of popped up in my head, I figured I would say it." Mel smiled. It warmed my heart. "Could we fly for a little? I want to be up in the sky for a little bit. Unless you're still too tired, then that's fine." Mel quickly backpedaled. L cleared my throat awkwardly and responded.

"Uh… sure. Sure, we could fly. I'm feeling a lot better after that nap. Hop on." I said, holding out my hand to her. She scampered up my hand and made herself snug on my head. Once I was sure she was secure, I made a slow, gentle ascent into the night sky. Too high, or too fast, and she would start to have some issues with pressure and oxygen. I capped it off at just a couple hundred feet above the ground.

"Why did you want to come up here?" I asked.

"We're really alone up here, nobody down there could possibly hear us. And… I feel like you are far more yourself up in the sky, Ray." She responded. That was not something I could say I ever noticed. I didn't think I was more myself in the sky? Apparently Rayquaza were supposed to live alone in the sky, but I didn't get it, and I certainly didn't feel any better or worse when I took to the sky. Me had a habit of seeing things I did not, however, and I trusted her not to just be making things up.

"Am I?" I asked, looking for a clarification.

"Yeah, I don't know how to explain it. It may be my imagination, I don't know…" She said. "It's just, when you fly around like this, when we are here together…it feels like you aren't worried about what's on the surface anymore. It feels like everything else falls away. The clouds, you could almost taste them, touch them."

"If we went that high up, it would hurt you." I said, matter of fact. I heard no response from my head. I had disappointed her. "Well, maybe, if over time we went a little bit higher and a little bit higher… your body could get used to it.

"Yeah, that would be great. Can't do something like that in just one night, huh?" Mel asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. But we're going to have all the time in the world at our fingertips. That's what a union is, no? I am promising to be there for you until the end of time. So, I will make you another promise, my princess. I promise you that you will reach the clouds."

"And I know you wouldn't break that for the world… I love you. The whole kingdom has come to watch us-" It was as if a thought just grabbed her mind, and she switched gears. "I hope nothing goes wrong with the ceremony."

"Hey, now. Have some faith in our staff. They're very good, you know."

"I know." She said, then laughed a little. "I guess I'm just finding things to worry about, now. Let's stay here a little while longer." We flew, and when I grew tired, I landed where I had been and dropped her off on the stone bench. I escorted her to her room, we kissed, a sweet, tender kiss… and we separated for the night. This would be the last time we had to so this. We would be together, and we would be happy.

"Until tomorrow, Ray."

"Until tomorrow, Mel."

* * *

 **Hope y'all have an awesome day, tomorrow's the big day, or, uh, three days, whatever.**


	8. Royal Union

**Ray's POV, enjoy!**

* * *

A beautiful melody wafted through the air, a traditional ballad of this land… one of union and harmony. It was almost time for the wedding. It had to be an outside wedding to accommodate everyone. Even then, there were so many people that the crowd must have stretched out for about a mile. The actual seating was taken up by those who had gotten here days ago. This was the event of the century for some reason.

Well, no, I could understand why it was. There would not only be a new prince, but a new heir to the throne in me. Plus, so many people were fond of Meliae, we had to beef up security to make sure nobody crazy tried to stop the ceremony because they wanted her for themselves or something. That was pretty messed up, but we did what we had to. I had been one of those fans before I got the chance to court her.

I was a little anxious… all these people here to watch me. I was used to being in a large crowd of people, but to help them out or hang out with them or something… not like this. Every eye on me. But, the king said it was something I would have to get used to, having the attention of the world on me. I would get used to it. Maybe I could just… tune them out? Well, easier said than done. I felt like a wave of noise was coming at me, and I wasn't even near them yet.

I was inside the palace. Our staff hurried around me, making sure every last little thing was perfect. They really didn't have to do this, but then again, I suppose they did. If this ceremony was just for me, I would say no to all of this. I did not need all this pomp and circumstance to marry Mel and be named the next in line to the throne. But, this ceremony was not just for me, it was for the whole kingdom, and I suppose they did want this kind of thing. If they wanted a celebration this grand, I guessed I wasn't one to stop them. It was just that a simple ceremony would have been just fine for me.

For example, I didn't need this little top hat and jacket I was wearing. It fit very well, because it was made for me by some tailors. It was made with very fancy black and purple materials. It was more for show than for comfort, though. I would be a very happy Rayquaza when I could take it off. The top hat, though… I could get used to the top hat. Looking in the mirror, it looked pretty snazzy on me.

I felt a little bad now, for asking for more food from the chefs yesterday. I did not realize just how many people would be coming. I sort of doubted there would be enough food for everyone, as it stood. Hopefully some of the citizens thought of that and brought some of their own food? Maybe? I didn't want my guests to go hungry. I didn't want my people to go hungry. That was why we did things like give our meal leftovers to them.

"Are you ready, Master Ray?" Emilia asked. She was a good maid, she was good to me. I thought to myself I should find out some more about her personal life. I was a little blinded by Meliae sometimes. I had a bit of… tunnel vision, when it came to her. That was something I had to work on, too. As king, my first responsibility was to my people. There would be time for Mel, too, but I couldn't do what I did now.

"I've been ready for hour, I was waiting for you all." I chuckled. Despite any problems the future might bring, I was in a good mood now. This was a party, after all. I had taken a look at the cake, it looked delectable, one of the most incredible confectionary delights I had ever set my eyes upon. I didn't know why I was so gung ho about the food…

"Very well. The ceremony will be starting soon. You remember your cue, yes?" She asked. She had been appointed to watch over me during this ceremony and make sure everything went smoothly. I sort of resented the idea that whoever's idea this was thought I needed a babysitter. However, it was a complicated ceremony with a lot of moving parts. It was probably for the best that there be somebody to remind me what all was supposed to happen.

"The doors will open, and I will fly out, down the carpet, and under the canopy. The king will name me heir. Then, Mel will come in and we will be wed." I repeated by route.

"Very good, one thing at a time, though." She replied.

"Hey, so… just curious, why do you talk like that?" I asked. She had a bewildered look on her face, as if she hadn't been expecting a question like that, or any questions at all, really.

"Talk like what?" She asked back.

"It's… it's effected, somehow. It's like you're putting on a voice." I observed. She gave me a strange look. "I'm sorry, was that too personal?" I asked. "Or maybe that's just your voice, in that case, I'm sorry. That was really insensitive of me, I just-"

"Calm down, Master Ray. You are correct. I use this way of speaking on purpose. If you sound fancier you live fancier, don't you know?"

"Is that right?" I asked.

"It got me this job." She said.

"I thought that was your skills and winning personality." I said. Emilia shrugged and gave me a strange smile that seemed to say "who knows."

A few moments passed in awkward silence. Everyone moved around me, and I felt the need to move as well, but I didn't have anywhere to go, so I fixed up my jacket and hat again, readjusted them. I could swear time was moving slower. I just wanted to do this already.

And then, after what must have been the longest time, the doors flew open. The light of day hit my face. There was a deep purple carpet running from the massive front doors of the palace to the canopy made of leaves and branches found all around the kingdom. It was a delicate structure, meant to represent the intricacies of life, connecting us, watching over us. Nature provided everything, and we gave back what we could. It took quite some time to make the canopy, because it could only be made with branches and leaves that had already fallen from the trees. It took quite a while to find enough of those. I appreciated those who took the time to make all of this for us. Although, again… I didn't need it to have a good time.

I slowly floated forward to the canopy. I could feel the eyes of the entire world on me. Even those who weren't here… although I found it hard to believe there was anybody who wasn't here… could probably see it on some sort of psychic entertainment broadcast. It wasn't something I had ever used, but I heard about it from citizens every so often. It sounded interesting. You could close your eyes and tune into a projection. There were actors and everything. There were people sketching pictures of me, admiring the clothing. They seemed very enamored with the clothing. Was the designer famous or something, or was it me somehow?

Whatever, it didn't matter, I couldn't let all of these things distract me or overwhelm me. I waved at the crowd, but didn't really see them. I heard them, but I wasn't really listening. I couldn't. How could anyone possibly pay attention to this many individuals at the same time.

I arrived at the canopy in front of the best seating, the seating for the residents of the palace. My family was front and center, and I was so glad to see their familiar faces in a sea of anonymity. The king was also there, under the canopy. He had a fancy golden mantle and was wearing his crown. He smiled warmly at me.

He was the one who made the decision to make me the heir. It wasn't that I was marrying the princess, and that made me the heir to the throne, it was quite the opposite, or rather, a fun coincidence. The king took me under his wing and decided that I would be his heir. The fact that I was also courting the princess was an incredibly convenient coincidence. This marriage would certainly secure my place in the royal line, though.

"Ray, bow your head."

"Yes, my king." I said, and bowed my head deeply to him. He placed his hand on my forehead and started to chant under his breath. There were traditions, payers to be said, but the king and I were of a similar mind. He did not need to make it big and exalted. He would be heard all the same. This was one reason we got along so well. My eyes were closed and it was strange… it felt like it was only just the two of us, everyone was quiet, trying to hear. This was the power of the king. He did not need to command attention, rapt attention was freely given. He didn't have to do a thing. Once he finished, his hand lifted off of my forehead, and I opened my eyes.

"I declare you my direct and rightful heir to the throne. When I shall step down, or if something should happen to me, none other than you will take the throne, so long as you are able to do your duties as king of this realm. And now, I will give to you my daughter, the princess Meliae."

That was her cue. Mel had also been waiting in the palace, but in a different part of it. We weren't supposed to see each other the day of until just now. Although, I'm not sure I would have seen her, even if that wasn't a rule. I just had this jacket and top hat. From what I understood, she had a whole elaborate… everything.

The doors to the palace opened once more… and there she was. The leaves on her back were stylized, and there were beautiful pink flowers intertwined in them. She walked, but she looked like she was almost floating. Her white fur looked even brighter than it usually did. She was amazing… and she was about to marry me. She walked up to me, and put her small paw in my clawed hand. What did I do to deserve a lady like her?

"It is my deepest pleasure to join the two of you today." The king started.

Then the doors burst open again. That… that was not supposed to happen. We all turned to see who in the world it could possibly be. I mean, no ceremony of this size was going to go completely smoothly, but letting another person burst out the front doors seemed like a really big oversight. Or was that supposed to happen? I looked over at Mel, she seemed just as confused as I was. Ok, that meant this wasn't supposed to be happening. She knew this whole affair better than I did.

The Pokemon who came through was… Emilia? She wouldn't do something like that? She knew how important this marriage was, and she knew exactly how it was supposed to go. Why would she do something so obviously off script? Did I do something wrong and she was coming to correct me? She floated to me with great speed and effort, right up to us… in front of everyone.

"Master Ray…" She panted. "Your call as a chosen one has come."

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed, have an awesome day!**


	9. To the Other Dimension

**Ray's POV enjoy!**

* * *

"What?" I asked. I was the only one not shocked into complete silence.

"Your call as a chosen one… the ceremony to bond you to a princess will be starting soon." She repeated, trying to explain further, as if explaining something obvious to a small child.

"But… I'm already in a ceremony to bond me to a princess." I said, looking down at Mel. Her eyes were misty. She had already realized the truth.

"A princess from the other world." Emilia said, a bit exasperated now. I didn't mean to make her upset like that. I just… no, this was not possible. A hush fell over the crowd. The king spoke up next.

"Are we sure this wasn't a miscommunication?" he asked. He didn't want me gone, either. He would have to find a new heir, he would have to… I would have to…

"Very sure." Emilia said, her face serious, then she turned to me. "You have to go, now. She will be starting the beacon soon." I inhaled to protest. There was no way, no way in the world I was going to give up what I had here to go to some other world to be bonded to some other princess. Before I could actually say those words, though, Mel put a paw on me.

"It's your duty. You must." She said in a very small voice. She did not want it to be true, either. She was holding back tears, I could tell. "I'll be ok." She reassured me. It wasn't very convincing.

I was never supposed to get this call. It had been years since the others were called, years! Why was I being called now? Why now, when my life was about to begin, when my life with Mel was finally about to officially begin. But… I looked around. Everyone looked at me expectantly. This wasn't what they were expecting, but they had great respect for chosen ones, too. This was not a bad thing in their eyes. It was a great honor… even if I had to leave everything behind. That's why you made sure there wasn't much to leave behind… but the ceremony… was never supposed to happen. So why was it? I inhaled deeply and sighed. There wasn't any way out of this, especially not with this many people around.

"Alright…" I picked up Mel and held her tight. The warmth and light of my life. Why? I said goodbye to my family… why? Why any of this? I hated this. I hated all of this. But I always knew this would happen I knew since I became a chosen one that one day I would have to leave this world. Back then I was ready for it. Back before I actually made a life for myself here.

I went back into the castle and washed, and said goodbye to the staff. I guessed I never would learn more about their personal lives. I would never get to be king. Instead… I would be the charge of some princess. Her name was Emerald, I was told. I forgot who told me. I was kind of going through to motions at this point, doing nothing but repeating the drills I had done years ago. We could be called at any moment, so we had to be ready. I wasn't ready.

"Can we just forego this whole thing? The window of opportunity closed for her a long time ago."

"No, I'm sorry. I want you to stay as much as you do. But… you have a duty. I'll keep you in my heart forever." Meliae promised. I looked around at the crowd. It was time. If I had to do this anyway, I guess I wanted to do it with dignity.

It was different with every chosen one, but it always started with journeying into your natural habitat, whether that be land, sea, sky, or some other medium of travel. For me, of course, it was the sky… it was near space. Maybe that was another reason I avoided going too high up. Maybe I was afraid I would be called. I would be… called by the beacon.

So I blasted off into the sky, soaring higher and higher until everyone and everything else fell away. It was like it all ceased to exist. Whoever this Emerald girl was… she had better be worth it. But, there was no way she could ever be worth what I was leaving behind. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't her fault, whoever she was. That only lasted for about a minute, though. Who else was there to blame? Who put off the ceremony for years and then suddenly decided to have it one day. It was stupid. This whole thing was stupid.

It was too late, though. This was already happening, and I was alone. The sky got darker and darker, and soon blue gave way to black, and I could see the stars. Maybe I could rewrite them so that I could stay here. If I was being rational, I would say that there was no reason to think up those things, excuses to get out of my duty. It was already too late… But I wasn't exactly in a rational mood.

Something shifted in my perspective. I couldn't tell what in the world was happening… but I had what I thought was a pretty accurate guess. I had just crossed over to the other dimension, the other world. I had passed the point of no return without even realizing it. There really was no going back, now. That was a smart strategy for whatever force was running this show. If I had the chance to turn back, I probably would have taken it.

Just to make sure, I flew back straight down. Well, not straight down, that would put horrible strain on me. Regardless, I descended back to the Earth. Just as I thought. There was land down there, alright, but it was not the land I knew. None of the landmarks of the kingdom were anywhere in sight. I was no longer in my own world. The only thing I could do now was follow the beacon.

I could feel it. It was a strange feeling, a strange magical connection, and a yearning to follow it. It was almost like a magnet. Almost unconsciously, I started floating towards the direction of it. Like a moth to a flame, it was kind of pathetic, but what else was there to do. This was my destiny, and it had been for years. Destiny always seemed to come back for you, huh? I was more than a little bitter.

I launched myself up into the sky once again. From this vantage point, I could actually see the beacon. There was a thin beam of light shooting up from the planet away into space. That was where it needed to go. I looked down at the Earth. The beacon was coming from the middle of the ocean. This was normal, I was told. The place where royals and legendries were bound to one another was an island kingdom, on the outskirts of the Hoenn region.

From the accounts I had heard, though, this was a rather weak beacon. I heard stories of light piercing into the heavens for tens of thousands of miles. This was a misty, faint light that faded out into the Milky Way. It did not waver, though, and it showed me where I needed to go. She was calling out to me. I had to go to her.

I flew slowly down, enjoying the vestiges of my old life and my old identity. But this was no longer my world. Mel, my family, Emilia, the King, everything I ever knew was now completely out of my reach. This was a cruel tradition. There could have been an exception for me? No, no, I knew what anyone would say, the honor of being a chosen one outweighs everything else.

I wondered what she would be like. She had to be one of the older princesses, considering she kept me waiting for so long. And her beacon was weak. What did that mean? Was she just not very good with magic? But all the royal family had very strong magic? That was how they could get us from another dimension in the first place. Maybe her power only went this far, or maybe there was some new technique where royalty only used the energy that was absolutely necessary to get us here. And her name was Emerald. That was all I knew about the person I was about to spend the rest of my life with.

We were bound together based off of what was in the human's hearts and souls. Could I somehow reverse engineer her personality from the fact that we were to be bound together? What did it say about her that I was her partner, what did it say about me? I decided maybe it would be best not to dwell on it.

I plunged through a cloud and got my first clear look at where I was going. It was white rock around for a long while. There was a large landmass to the north. That would be… Hoenn? There were two larger islands made of the same white rock. The beacon was coming from the one furthest from the large landmass. I flew towards that one, getting lower and lower. No doubt someone could see me now. This was always a big affair for them, apparently, like the wedding for us.

As I zeroed in on the place that I had learned was called Waterfall Kingdom, I could feel my own energy being projected outward as some sort of, well, projection. I didn't know how it looked on the outside.

I could see them, now, like so many ants, gathered on one side of the crater-like kingdom. They were gathered on one wall, positioned so that I would fly right into them. I could see the waterfalls for which, I suppose, the kingdom was named. It was so tiny for a kingdom.

And there were the other chosen ones with other princesses, lined up along the river, next to a king with a Mewtwo. That was interesting, a monarch of the same kind in both words. Did that mean anything? I wasn't sure. And then I saw here. I didn't want to see her, but there she was. My charge. She was a girl who looked just on the cusp of adulthood. She had white hair and a white dress and gray eyes. It was like she was missing all color. This, too, was normal and expected.

I was to fly right into her to complete the ceremony. Fine, we would get this over with. I sped to her, swooping into the crater and flying across the lake. I touched a claw into the lake as I went. The water was surprisingly pure. That must have been Suicune's doing. Then I set my sights only on Emerald. It wouldn't hurt, I just had to go ahead and smack right into her. I put my faith in my teachers, and went.

And she screamed and fell backwards. At least, I thought that was what happened. My perspective changed, and I was facing a different direction. I looked down at the lake. Yep, there she was… in the lake, her silk dress soaked.

You had to be kidding me.

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 **Hope you have a really good day!**


	10. A Prophecy

**Emerald's pov, from here on out it switches off every chapter between Emerald and Ray. Sorry I disappeared for a while, I just finished 100,000 words on this story in 2 months, and it's still going. It's a little ridiculous, but this is more an experiment to get a word count. After I'm done, and know what the heck I'm doing with this story, I'll rewrite it in a much more refined way. Enjoy!**

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I stared at my new Rayquaza. He was a handsome dragon, shiny and strong and sleek. It was worth the wait for him. We were going to take to the skies together. I wasn't sure what exactly my duty with Rayquaza would entail, but it had to involve flying! Plus he looked kind of skinny and maneuverable. He would be good in caves, too.

He stared back at me strangely. Oh, right, I was still soaking wet. My silk dress clung to me awkwardly… everyone just sort of left. I whirled around to yell at Diamond. She was already gone. I sighed. This had to be one of the worst first impressions in the history of the world.

"Hi, I'm Emerald now, I guess. And you?" I asked.

"Ray." He answered in a deadpan. It was… hard to get a read on this guy. He was probably just weirded out by how I looked or how the ceremony was going? They always seemed to arrive knowing what was supposed to happen, and this was not what was normally supposed to happen.

"My sister messed with time so it looked like you paused and then appeared right in my face. Sorry we had to meet like this." He looked me over. I would have loved to know what was going on in his head. He couldn't… already think I was a failure. I was… but I didn't want him to know that. This was supposed to be a new start, not the same old thing with a new face.

"We should go to the Oracle." He said.

"Uh… ok. It's up there." I pointed to the main entrance to the cascade caves, from which the river originated. I was still on the marble panel in the middle of the river. Dad got me on here, but he had left, too. "Can you fly me there?" I asked.

"You can fly yourself." He replied, and started floating up towards the cave. I sighed internally. I knew what he was thinking. If I had him as my legend, I should have been able to use magic to fly myself. I probably had the magical prowess to do that now, at least a little. The thing was magic potential and execution were two separate things. Lilly and I had only focused on creating a beacon. There was no other sort of magic I knew how to do. Ray didn't know that, though. Maybe I could pull it off… somehow.

I closed my eyes and centered myself. The ocean, the wind, the waves, the sky… the winds pulling me upwards… up into the heavens, my feet lifting off the ground and drifting towards the cave. I had no idea if this was even the right way to do this kind of magic.

I opened my eyes. It was not. My feet were still firmly on the ground, and Ray didn't want to fly me, I assumed, otherwise he would had done it to begin with. So, looked like I was going to have to ford the river. The entrance to the cave was entirely river for a while, until it opened up into a lake a ways in. This was not turning out to be the day I wanted it to be.

I slogged through the river, against the current. I pulled my dress up a bit so that I could move my legs easier. Ray looked back at me sidelong. If he had an eyebrow, I'd bet it would be raised. He was judging me. He had no right to judge me. We just met. This was why I wanted him to fly me. Maybe now that he saw me struggling, he would fly me. I walked on a few steps. He was still staring at me but didn't say a word, just kept floating along.

"I can't fly. Could you help me?" I asked. In response he just turned away and kept floating like he didn't hear me. How… rude. Why was he being so rude to me? He barely said two words to me and he seemed to hate me. I didn't even do anything to him. So I sloshed through the river, barefoot. Thankfully, the current wasn't so strong that it swept me away when I had proper footing. We got to the mouth of the cave. Once we crossed its threshold, I was able to calm down. The sound of the water echoing off of the cavern walls was soothing. I looked over at Ray. There was no change. I pulled out my gem light which I brought with me to… well… light the way, that was obvious. Ray looked at it like he wanted to ask a question about it, but held his tongue.

"If you have something to say, you can say it." I said, a bit ticked off now. There were plenty of reasons for plenty of people to give me the cold shoulder, or at least something I understood they thought was my fault. But this… the Pokemon bonded to me, who was supposed to be my best friend and partner, was being so cold to me for no reason.

"Listen. I don't like you." He said curtly, turning violently towards me. Then he checked himself, turned away, and kept going.

"And why not, cause I fell in the water? I told you that wasn't my fault. Or because I can't fly? I just haven't learned yet! And that's a stupid reason!" That made him stop for a moment, like he wanted to retaliate, but he did not, and kept going. This wasn't going well, huh? Did my sisters have a similar experience?

We came to the lake, and finally reached dry land. I was thankful to get out of the water. Now we were in a large, open cavern. This was a manmade space, unlike all the rest of the caves. Everything else, the catacombs and such, were all from erosion or something. Those were far more interesting, the caves that had not been made by design. This was carefully chiseled out, right down to the carving on the floor, the kingdom's crest, as well as many other similarly minimalistic drawings full of Pokemon and people working together and nature and elements.

This was the Oracle's chamber. There she was, in the center of the chamber. She was an elderly woman with white hair and dark purple, ragged robes, fraying at the seams. It looked something like a dirty decaying cloth. Something about her made me feel rather uneasy. I had never seen her before, only heard stories. Not many people ever actually saw her. She lived here in this cave, and the only reason people ever went in this particular cave was because of some ceremony she was a part of. The only people who ever did these types of ceremonies were royals, a very small percentage of the population. We could be completely making her up and nobody would be able to contradict us. I thought, for a while, that she was actually a myth. But there she was. As we approached, she chuckled.

"You two… I have been waiting. You have kept me waiting for quite a while." She said, her voice like a wheeze, a death cry. I felt my face get hot.

"Alright, I get it. Can we just… get on with it?!" I asked. This was not what this was supposed to be. Now, even the Oracle was making fun of me.

"Just teasing a little. I apologize, my dear." The Oracle croaked. She had to have an actual name, right? But she wasn't about to tell it to us. Or, at least, she had never told anyone else. "Now, before we begin… do the two of you have any questions?"

"What is your name?" I blurted out.

"You know, nobody's ever asked me." She chuckled. "I call myself Hazel." Oh, I guessed it wasn't some big mystery, it was just that nobody asked. That was kind of funny, honestly. Lots of mysteries were only mysteries because people didn't actively seek out the answer, I found.

"How do I get back?" Ray asked, cutting off Hazel's laughter. I looked at him. Get back? To the place where he came from? That… that was weird. Why would he want that? Ray was different than the others… All my sister's familiars… they did not behave like this at all. I had to wonder why. But… sending someone back, the opposite of a beacon. It was not an easy two way door. My eyes went wide and I shook my head at the Oracle, begging her silently not to tell him how to do it. Come on. My life had just begun, and now he wanted to end it? I would be a pariah forever. Please, please don't tell him.

"That… is not a question for me to answer." She answered simply. "Now, there is not much time, the energies align only for a time. Mismagius, come."

If there was a limited time, why did she even give us a chance to ask questions? She could have done the reading first, and then opened the floor to questions. But who was I to question the Oracle. A Pokemon flew out of the ground, from the shadows. It was a dark purple Pokemon, matching the Oracle's garb. It looked like it had a pointy witch's hat, but I was willing to bet that it was just attached to its head.

It floated to Hazel and wrapped its arms around her, Mismagius's eyes twinkled. Gem lights lit up on the ceiling, so that the cave ceiling looked like the vast night sky, with the stars twinkling. It was mesmerizing… Ray made a little noise. He was impressed by it, too. The Oracle started to sway, and her eyes went blank and cloudy. She… was she ok? No, Crystal told me a little about this. She would go into a trance and spit out some nonsense, and then you could spend a lifetime trying to decipher it. None of my sisters had been able to do it yet, or at least, I didn't think so. It wasn't really something we talked about.

It seemed Ray knew what was going on, too. I wondered where exactly it was he came from, and why he would care about going back? And what was the orientation like, I wondered. Because the Pokemon always seemed to know about this world.

The lights in the ceiling got brighter and brighter, until it was absolutely blinding. I had to close my eyes. I remembered seeing the light from outside the cave. I never realized it was this bright. It was hurting my eyes, actually.

"When the world falls into darkness and the light is struck from the sun, a star shall rise from an unforeseen place, take its rightful place in the sky, and blot out the night." She and Mismagius said, overlapping each other to make this weird, sort of creepy split voice. And then the lights went out.

"What?" I asked. But, of course, there was no answer. The Oracle made her prediction, and that was all there was to say about it. She would give no explanation because I was pretty sure she didn't have an explanation. She just predicted the future, she didn't necessarily understand it.

And then I found myself in front of the castle. We had been teleported back here, left to wonder about the prophecy we were given. I could hear an almost imperceptible sigh to the right of me. I looked, Ray was there. Weren't we supposed to be bound to someone according to what was in our hearts and souls? Why was I with some mopey guy?

"Well… this is home." I said. "Since it's you, we'll probably have a big room on the top floor, so you can fly around and stuff." I said, maybe that would be comforting somehow?

"Right, let's go then. I could use a nap." Ray said.

"Me too." I replied, although I was pretty sure he needed a nap for a much different reason than I. I was… magically exhausted.

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 **Hope you have an awesome day!**


	11. Night Musings

**Sorry for the delayed posting, I forgot tbh, Ray's point of view**

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I could see her in my dreams, I could see her everywhere. The sky, the rocks… everything was Meliae. Everything except Emerald. Plus she was… a bit of a brat, wasn't she? What did she do? She knows what she did… she ripped me away from my happiness.

The Oracle had said that how to get back was not her question to answer. Was I supposed to ask Emerald? I looked over at her. She was still asleep, snoring quite loudly. She was in a dry dress, now. What did she mean she couldn't fly? She didn't learn yet? Then what business did she have calling me? Why did she have to call me?

I sighed and closed my eyes again. Meliae… I wasn't going to get to see her again, was I? She saw me off with a smile, but I knew she had to be just as broken as I was. It didn't help that I knew there were going to be so many fans of Mel going after her, trying to court her. I had no idea if she would marry another man. I suppose she had to, being a princess. That hurt.

I opened my eyes. Nope, still in the same room. Everything was green and gold, like my skin. It was garish, it was annoying. It was like I couldn't escape myself. I couldn't escape the fact that I was not at home, I was not with my family. I was away from everyone I ever knew, and I would be here forever. I knew this was going to happen. I had been ready for it at one time. But, Mel had broken that, had broken my built in apathy for the world I called home. Now I… I missed it and I missed her. This was a stupid place. It wasn't nearly as nice as the palace. And why would it be? This place was not designed for me. This place was not designed for Pokemon, or at least, not as well as when there were only Pokemon. There were humans here, and the architecture was primarily for them.

I had a corner with some soft material I didn't recognize, I could sleep there. It was comfortable. There were a lot of… strange things here. For example, the gemstone she had that floated in the air next to her. There were other things in this world I also didn't recognize. It was a strange world, and this place seemed… so cut off from everything else. Not only was it in the middle of the ocean, but it had sheer white cliffs on every side. It felt like it was closing in on me.

It was ok, it was all going to be ok. I tried to tell myself that, anyways. I wasn't very convincing to myself. Why was I even trying to make this ok? I didn't have to be satisfied here. I wasn't satisfied here, and I would never be satisfied here.

Emerald lay in her bed, raised, with curtains and sheets. It all looked very fancy. She was royalty, after all. I was supposed to be loyalty, but I felt more like a pet in this corner. When I was flying towards her, she was pale and had white hair and gray eyes. She was totally unremarkable, physically. I had given her her colors. Now she had blonde hair, highlighted with a bright green. Her eyes were a bright turquoise. Her dress was green. I couldn't escape it. I didn't want her to be like me. I didn't want to be bonded to her. That was the worst part, too. We were really bonded together on a spiritual level. As in, we couldn't leave one another. We could not be separated. It was like there was an unseen tether holding our souls together. That was the only reason I was staying here.

There were worse places I could be imprisoned. I was in a castle… I was… going to be fed well, cared for, I assumed. The people here had great respect for chosen ones, just like the people back home. I stared at her. I couldn't get very far out of this room without her, and I wasn't about to carry her unconscious body on my back. I didn't want her anywhere near my back.

She slept through the night. Sometime after the sun set, I couldn't tell when, someone knocked on the door. I answered it. It was another, taller human. I grimaced. I did not want to deal with this species right now.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Is Em asleep?" she asked. Whoever this was, she had to be close to Emerald. She had only gotten a name today, and this human already decided to give her a nickname.

"Yes. What do you want?" I repeated. I wasn't being protective, although it might have looked like that from the other side of the door. I just wanted her to go away.

"I was wondering if you wanted some food." She said. Food… my stomach grumbled. I never got to partake in the wedding feast the chefs prepared for us… I hoped they gave that food out to the kingdom anyways.

"Yes, what do you have?" I asked.

"Local fruits and veggies, bread, cheese from a Milktank…" She trailed off a little. I nodded, alright, this place had more or less the same diet as my world, so there was that, at least.

"That will be fine. Bring what you have." I ordered, then closed the door. Every human face was just a reminder of what could no longer be. I sank back into the bedding set out for me. There had to be a better sleeping situation than this. I sat a while, not thinking about anything in particular. The world could pass me by and I wouldn't do a thing. I think I may have dozed off briefly, but was rudely awakened by another knock on the door. This time, when I opened it, nobody was there, just a few plates of food. I collected them, and settled down at the table near Emerald's bed. At least the food was good… at least the food was good… but not as good as home. Nothing here could be as good as home. I couldn't… I couldn't stop thinking about it. I could still hardly believe this was happening.

'When the world falls into darkness and the light is struck from the sun, a star shall rise from an unforeseen place, take its rightful place in the sky, and blot out the night.' My mind drifted over to the prophecy we received earlier that day. What in the world was that supposed to mean. Well, maybe I could figure it out. Well, I had to make the assumption that the prophecy was about Emerald and I, since the Oracle gave it to us. It wasn't necessarily us, but if I didn't make some kind of assumption, there was nowhere I could start from.

The world would fall into darkness and light was struck from the sun. So, something about the world was going to fall to darkness. Maybe there was corruption or a dark force. Maybe it was more literal, talking about a solar eclipse? A star shall rise. Emerald? Or me? Was there some star involved? That was the problem with prophecies of the future. At the point in time you get it, you often don't have the information necessary to decipher it.

Whatever bad thing was going to happen, we were going to come from an unlikely place and get rid of the darkness. That was what I got out of it. That… sounded about right. That sounded like something a prophecy would tell you. You are the chosen one, go save the world. Well maybe I didn't want to. Maybe I wanted to go find a way to get to Mel, and screw this world. I cared about my other fellow chosen ones. We had a real nice friendship going, at least, once upon a time. I didn't see them for years, and none of them had visited the room yet. Maybe they wanted me to be able to get some sleep? I didn't know. I didn't know if they even cared about me anymore. I didn't know if I wanted them to care about me anymore.

Whatever… whatever… It didn't matter, it couldn't matter. I couldn't let it matter. I could just sleep. I could… I didn't know. Now I was just repeating myself, but that's what was happening, my mind felt like it was caught in a loop.

I ate, and it made me feel a little better. You would be surprised how much more upset you got when you were hungry. Maybe I would get some rest. Maybe I would wake up next to Mel in our room.

So I lay down and tried to fall asleep, and tried… And I tried for quite a while, but I couldn't. The air, the very air was different here, the energy of the world. Everything was ever so slightly different, and it was unnerving. I did breathing exercises. That didn't help. I got up and ate some more, and floated around some. I tried to fly out the window, and saw exactly how long the tether was. It wasn't long enough for me. I wasn't free, trapped up on a pedestal.

Eventually, I drifted off into a restless sleep. No dreams, no nothing, just unconsciousness. Emerald continued to snore. Maybe, eventually, I would get used to it. Get used to it… or escape. Those were really my only options.

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 **Hope you enjoyed, have an awesome day!**


	12. Life Begins

**Emerald's pov**

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Light hit my face, and for once in my life, I knew things were going to be ok! Sure, there was a lot I screwed up, but I was a member of society. I could do anything. I looked over at Ray, my Rayquaza. And then I remembered. So many things went wrong yesterday. But today was a new day. Today was the start of a new life! There was so much to show him, so much I wanted to show him about this kingdom and this world. He said he wanted to know how to go back, but he would change his mind once he saw how things were around here. Well, not just here… here was small and cramped compared to the big old world out there, out in the endless sky. The two of us… out in the endless sky.

Ray was still asleep. I got up and tiptoed over to him. I didn't want to disturb his sleep, but my stomach was legitimately about to eat itself if I didn't get some food in there, and I wasn't sure I could physically go to the kitchen without him. I lay a hand on him and gave his head a little rub. He jumped up with a start, his black and gold eyes shrinking from the sudden intake of light. That wasn't all, he roared, frightened. I screamed in response, also frightened, and fell back. It was yesterday all over again, awesome.

"What's wrong with you, can't you see I was sleeping?!" Ray snapped.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just… I need to eat. Let's go down to breakfast. They have some good stuff, whatever you like." I said, trying to be cheery, even in the face of his attitude.

"I know." He replied, gesturing over to a bunch of empty plates. Someone must have brought food earlier. They were the dinner plates, with fancier gold trim, so it must have been last night. And he didn't leave any for me, not one bite. Well, I had been asleep at the time. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. There was a moment of awkward silence between us, looking down at the plates.

"So… breakfast? I haven't eaten since last lunch, and I need you to come with me." I said. Without a word, Ray floated towards the door and opened it.

"Well? Lead the way." He said, just as blunt as ever. 'As ever' like I had known him for more than a few hours. Although, in a way, in a weird way, I felt as if I had known Ray for a while. I didn't know anything about him that I shouldn't have… it was just a vague feeling. That might have been because our souls were bonded. A lot of weird things happened because of that. Well, not a lot of weird things, a lot of completely normal things. It was just weird to me, because I hadn't experienced it, yet. I wondered if he felt like he knew me, too.

I walked through the door, under Ray's judgmental eyes, and he floated silently behind me. We walked through the castle. There was Sapphire surfing with Kyogre… there was Platinum floating from dimension to dimension, in and out of the Reversal World. I was supposed to be with them, now, one of them. I looked over at Ray with an expectant smile. He shook his head. Aww… I really wanted to fly. But, he said I should fly myself. So, today, I would ask Lilly about it. Magical prowess was needed to do any magic, but once you had it, you could do any sort of magic, you just had to learn the specific trick to it.

I really hoped Ray would like it here… because I wasn't going to send him back… even if I knew the way how. Only I could sever the bond and send him back… but I was not about to do that, not after I worked so hard… not at the price it took. There was nothing he could do to make me do that. So… I would do my best to make him see his place was here, and hopefully he would not try to go back.

We made it to the dining hall. I was no longer a dull, uncolored dud, so there was that, at least. They couldn't call me magically useless, anymore. I did what needed to be done, I brought Ray here. Now, like the rest of my sisters, we would have a duty to do, instead of being able to wander all day. Now, make no mistake, there would still be plenty of wandering, just… I had to wait until after our job was done. We would hold up the skies.

Our meal was as rambunctious as ever. Apparently, getting my legend did not change their opinion of me as much as I wanted it to. Diamond and Pearl couldn't stop giggling at me. Making me fall during the ceremony was just the latest in their never ending conquest of pranks. Diamond…

"Why'd you do that, huh?" I asked across the room.

"Do what, sister dearest?" She asked, her voice rang clear, like a bell, and old mountain air. She thought she was so great…

"Mess with time so I'd fall." I said. She knew what she was doing. I reached for a small loaf of bread, but before I could touch it, it disappeared. "Pearl." I was… ever so slightly exasperated, but I did not dare let that show. That was what they wanted.

"Yeah?" Pearl asked, lazily chewing on the loaf of bread she had just stolen from me. There was nothing I could do that adequately got back at her. The thing I wanted to do was blast her away with the winds. But, if Ray didn't want to cooperate, and I didn't know the magic, there wasn't a whole lot I could do magically. Physically, however… I stood up, very calmly, walked to the other side of the table, and punched Diamond and Pearl in the face. Then I calmly walked back.

"Emerald!" Archibald yelled. Wow, he truly did hate me, didn't he? All these things going on, and all he cared about was the physical altercation.

"They started it." I said calmly.

"I don't care!" I opened my mouth to protest, but then closed my mouth again.

"Dish duty?" I asked. Archibald nodded, his mouth a stern line. I sighed, off again to dish duty, I guessed. It was me and Crystal once again.

"You wash, I'll dry." Crystal said, as if by route. It was like this a lot of days. Archibald did not like me, I guess having an identity was not going to change that.

"Dry?" Ray asked.

"Use the wind to dry the dishes. I use pure water to clean them. We all have to help out around here, you know? I know it probably isn't what you're used to, but it's just an exercise in being responsible and caring for what we have. Crystal explained, conjuring up some water.

"Hmph. I suppose I see the point in that." Ray said. He wasn't looking at Crystal though, he was looking at Suicune. Did they know each other or something? He looked at Suicune softer than he looked at me, looked at any of my sisters or my mother. Maybe it was because she was a Pokemon and not a human? Who knew?

So, he started to dry the dishes, by bringing wind. It was sort of incredible, suddenly wind was just blowing. He was putting no effort into it. I wondered what kind of thing he could do if he actually make an attempt. A wave of contempt came over me, this was so easy for him, huh?

I wouldn't be like this for long, though. I would learn so many different magics, now. All of my limiters were off. I knew I could do it, now. And if I could do one thing, I could do others. There was no doubt in my mind. That was a lie. There was a lot of doubt in my mind, but I was telling myself that there was no doubt in my mind, so that maybe I could trick my mind into having no doubt.

Why did Archibald think that me doing dish duty so much was actually going to do anything? It wasn't my fault that I was provoked like that constantly. I was… I really wanted to be their friend and stuff. If they didn't blow things up in my face all the time, I would at least just leave them alone. But no, they had to make things hard for me, and in making things hard for me, they only made things hard for themselves. Whatever, we just did the dishes.

"Congratulations, Emerald. I like the name." Crystal said.

"Thank you." I said, though the compliment felt hollow. Maybe it was just me. I knew she was probably trying to be genuine, Crystal didn't have a dishonest bone in her body. There was a reason her power had to do with purity. It was just me. It was always just me, wasn't it?

We finished the dishes. I would have been lying if I said I wasn't at least a little excited. Because now I got my job, my place, and my guess was that it had to do with flying. I would get to fly, I would get to see the world beyond. What was it? How would I be helping to maintain the pillars of reality?

I nearly ran to the throne room, where my mother waited with my assignment. There she was, sitting on her throne, all dressed up in her pink and purple clothes. Cresselia sat next to her, floating gently up and down. She smiled at me gently. Everything about her was gentle, like a good dream.

"Hey, mom." I smiled. She never treated me badly.

"Hello, Emerald. I am so glad to finally meet you as, well, you. It's quite satisfying. I was worried I might never be able to call you by a name, that I would never be able to greet you and a legend together."

"Yes, I know. I thought so too we all thought so." I sighed. Mom held up my face by my cheek and smiled.  
"But you did it. I always believed you would." She said. That seemed to contradict what she just said. Maybe she always believed, but couldn't help but have some doubts. I mean, I had doubted myself so much… Lilly was the only one who kept believing in me. I was really grateful to her. And hopefully, if nobody else, she could help me sort out this thing with Ray. She would have some sort of solution, I was sure. My plan wasn't working out very well, unfortunately. Making someone do the dishes was not the way to make someone fall in love with a new home. Oh, welcome to your new home, here, do some dishes. No, that was stupid. That alone was reason enough to want to run away… or fly away, in this case. Wanting to fly away would be fine with me, if he wanted to fly away with me. I wanted to fly, too. More than anything.

"Yes, I did. So… what is our duty? How will we help this world?" I was eager to learn, eager to go and do. She gave me the worst answer she probably could have.

"Nothing yet. You still have to learn." Ugh… I wanted to learn by doing, by going. I wanted to move.

"More lessons?" I asked, deflating.

"Yes." Mom answered. "Now, I know you don't like it, but now that you have some magic, it will be a much more focused curriculum, so that you can go out there and do your duties.

"What will that entail, once we can do it?" Ray's voice sounded hollow, like he wasn't actually there mentally or something.

"You will tend to the skies, making sure the winds flow properly, maintaining balance in the weather. That sort of thing."

"Huh…" He sounded… he sounded like nothing. This guy was notoriously hard to read, and quite honestly, it was annoying. It was like trying to talk to my sister Silver. It was a difficult thing to do and not really worth the effort you had to put in. She was reserved, incredibly reserved, and held the sacred silver flame. It cursed her when she was young, and she ended up burning… a large portion of the kingdom. It was a bad time for everyone. I didn't have much of an opinion of Silver. She didn't bother with me much, and I didn't bother with her, much. There were a lot of us, so ignoring one or two sisters wasn't particularly difficult.

"That sounds amazing. I just need to learn the magic, right?" I asked, and she nodded in response.

"Go to the library. Lilly is waiting for you two." She said, then kissed my forehead and waved me away. I wished my parents would spend more time with me, and I'm sure my sisters felt the same. But… they had important things to do, you know, running the kingdom and all. I understood that and all… just…

I walked off to the library, Ray in tow. I know he didn't want to do this. His power level went down to my power level. So, even if he had once been strong, I dragged him down to my level. I would grow for him, though. I would do whatever he needed… except send him back. Lilly, time and time again, she knew what to do. Plus, maybe Ray could make friends with Guardevoir… or something? I just wanted him to go adventuring with me. We would do that after the lesson. It would be great.

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 **Hope you ave an awesome day**


	13. Lessons

**Ray's POV**

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So… I guessed this was really happening. I was stuck here, and we would have to go up into the sky together and make sure the winds didn't accidentally destroy everything, or something. Something about the weather. I had had that kind of power. I didn't know if I did anymore. My level of power depended on her level of power, and her level of power, as far as I could tell, was not very high. The fact that she could only just barely bring me over from the other world, the fact that she couldn't even get the winds to pick her up a little bit. I didn't think her level of power was very high. Unless she was holding out on me for some weird reason.

If she was this weak, she could have just, I don't know, left me well enough alone? There were plenty of chosen ones whose power got boosted. I saw some of them, Dialga and Palkia, their powers were so much more powerful. They didn't even need to demonstrate it, I could feel it. They had… I don't know what it was, an aura? I felt it when I walked into the dining hall.

So now, what, we were going to remedial magic class? We went to the library. It was a maze of books, books everywhere, the walls were lined with them. I wondered how many new books there were here. Back in the palace, while I was waiting for… this. I couldn't believe this was what I was waiting so long for. Anyways, I was just sitting and waiting for a while before I started courting Mel. I read every book in the library. At least, I was pretty sure I did. I wondered if there were any new books here. I glanced at Emerald. And would she stay still long enough to let me read any of them.

"Emerald, I'm proud of you. I'm very, very proud." I heard a voice from nearby, a voice I recognized. I turned to see her. Oh, it was the lady that brought me food last night. She was also the remedial magic teacher. Emerald's eyes had the beginnings of tears in them, and she embraced her teacher tightly. It was obvious Emerald worked very hard to accomplish the feat of magic used in the ceremony. I did recognize that. I just… I wished she hadn't. Or, I wished it wasn't me that she called. There were so many others in my world who would have loved to take on a charity case like her, support her, and grow great together. I was sure there were those who would love that… but not me. I had a life, I had a wife… I was going to have a kingdom to rule over one day. Now what did I have? A charity case as my charge.

"Oh, and Rayquaza, I'm happy to meet you properly, of course." She turned to me. She seemed so chipper. She would be the type to take Emerald under her wing.

"Of course. Please, call me Ray." I said.

"Call me Lilly." She said. "And this is Guardevoir." She gestured over to a book case. A Guardevoir poked her head out shyly and waved. I waved back, and she poked her head back behind the book case. Was she shy, or enamored with me or something? I didn't see nearly enough Pokemon around here. They helped… some. The humans… all more or less the same, how did they not get bored with each other? How could they stand being so similar? Well, I supposed that it was just normal for them. And this was going to have to become normal for me, or I would go crazy. Or both, that was the most likely, I would get used to it and that would drive me crazy. Oh, but now I was just going on.

"So…now wind magic?" Emerald asked, excited like a little kid. She was a little kid. I was small compared to the some of the Rayquaza in this world, but I was not young. I had been around for decades. I wasn't sure how old I would be considered in this world. I was pretty sure the two used different systems of time.

"Yes." Lilly responded.

"She already tried." I said, deadpan. If she couldn't, then she couldn't. She wasn't going to make me significantly stronger by learning a few tricks, and the sooner she learned what she needed to do for our job the sooner I would have to carry her on my back. Only one person was allowed on my back, only one, and that was Mel.

"Yeah… but you don't know Lilly. She's a great teacher. She's the only reason I made it this far." Ah, so it was her fault. Good to know. Not that I was going to do anything to hurt her. Not that I was going to revolt outright. There were plenty of humans and Pokemon here far stronger than I could ever hope to be with Emerald. If I tried, I would get taken down almost immediately. I wanted to catch up with the other chosen ones, not fight with them. Unfortunately, there was no way to do it without Emerald and their humans being near, and the conversation was not for them.

"Is there a way to make the tether longer? I have some concerns." I said. If I could only break free, that would be incredible, but if I had to, lengthening the tether, being able to have some sort of privacy. I wanted to do things that did not involve her.

"Yep, it's kind of like a muscle, with time and persistence, it can stretch. There are exercises we can do, after Emerald is done with her magic." Lilly explained. I nodded, Emerald shot an exasperated look at me, but I didn't say a word. Yes, I wanted to be away from her, what was she going to do about it? I nodded in a form of thanks, and they began their lesson.

I actually wasn't sure how one learned magic. We Pokemon, we had power, but it wasn't exactly the same as magic. Our power could not be taught, it was just in us. However, magic could work on us, and it was tied pretty closely to our power levels. I wasn't sure how it worked exactly. I… really wanted to go through these books, actually. I went over to a bookshelf that was near enough to Emerald that I wouldn't have any issues, and started to go through them. Something told me she wasn't the type of girl who wanted to sit down and read, so if I wanted to read, this was the time to do it.

There were a wide variety of books in a strangely large variety of colors. A lot of things in this palace were more colorful than back home. Why was this? Did they just have better dyes? Or… what was it? Why was the world different? That was a stupid question, any world is going to be different, going to organize in completely different ways based on different resources and the people contributing to the world. When I thought about it, it was a little amazing that both worlds even had royalty, had palaces, and had Pokemon. Maybe it was a natural way to organize? Who knew?

The books on this shelf were mostly maps, maps of the kingdom, and maps of the outside world. I picked one up, it had a lot of world maps. It showed this land as I saw it from above. There were islands scattered in a vast ocean, and mainland. There was a huge volcano, there were sandy beaches. Such a varied landscape, and so much ocean. I was pretty sure there wasn't nearly this much ocean in my world. I hadn't done a whole lot of traveling in my world. Everything was for the sake of not building a strong attachment to the world, so that we could leave it behind and go to this world. Our duty… my duty… what a joke. My duty was to my people, not these people.

"Alright, now you're going to want to make these symbols with your hands. For all forms of advanced magic, you need to sculpt out the magic, define it. The beacon, you know, is the most basic, unformed magic. So, for the rest of it, there are things you must do."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emerald struggling to make the gestures Lilly made. So, she had trouble even with something like that? Something told me it would be a long time before we got anywhere. It would be a while before I had to fly with her on my back. She looked a lot heavier than anything I was used to carrying. I would need some training myself if I was going to have the same speed and agility I usually did with a human on my back.

"Like this." Lilly said, and guided Emerald's hands. "And keep up your magic, the ocean, the sky, remember." I heard her breathe deeply in and out. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I knew she was working hard, giving it her all… It was just, absolutely pathetic. She was objectively pathetic.

"Is this right?" Emerald asked.

"Don't talk, don't think." Lilly scolded. Was that how magic worked, or did Lilly just not want Emerald to keep on with her whining and complaining? Probably the first, Lilly seemed like she genuinely liked the girl. The two obviously meant something to each other.

I kept looking through books, there were maps of this kingdom, too. It seemed the lake and the cliffs were the entire kingdom. It was a very small kingdom. Mine was much bigger. Well, the kingdom that was supposed to be mine. It was stolen from me. My future was stolen from me by this stupid girl and social convention. Expectation… there were so many expectations, demands being made of me.

Or was that stupid? I was treated well… I didn't have to do a whole lot. No. I would not get used to it. I… I didn't know what I was going to do. No, I did, I was going to get out. No matter what the cost, I was going to make it back to my love.

'Not a question for me' the Oracle said. So who was the one to ask? Did Emerald know? Did Lilly know? I looked over to them. The two of them were busy trying to learn how to make a puff of air appear, or something. Best not to disturb, for now. I would have plenty of time, I imagined, all the time in the world… But, the fact that she didn't outright say no meant there probably was a way. But then why couldn't she answer. Maybe it was up to Emerald to release me. I couldn't sever the bond myself, free myself? Was that it? That was pretty cruel.

They kept on like that for an hour or two. I flipped through books, while they did strange poses and breathed. To anyone outside, it would have looked like the sign language of a madman. That was what I got from it, anyways. When they were done, Emerald ran off with little warning, dragging me along by the tether. It was weird. I did not know how to describe it. I had to move forward with her, but I didn't feel like I was being physically tugged. It was a tether of the soul. We were connected by the soul, and I hated that. Oh, that was probably why magic made Pokemon stronger, too. Stronger magic made their soul stronger, which made our soul stronger, which made our powers stronger.

"Where are you taking me?!" I demanded.

"Lessons are done, it's time for adventure!" She yelled, the biggest grin on her face. I grimaced.

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 **hope you enjoyed, have an awesome day!**


	14. Compromise

**Emerald's pov**

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"Adventure?" Ray asked. Yeah I could see in his face he didn't like being dragged along. Honestly, I was surprised this was working at all. I would have thought I would be anchored to Ray, not that I would be able to pull him. I guess I thought that because he was significantly bigger than me. But, that really had nothing to do with our bond, did it? We were linked on a metaphysical level, so our physical reality didn't matter much, did it?

"Yep. I'm going to show you around. I know you'll like it here." I smiled at him. I needed him to like it here. Or else the both of us were going to have a pretty miserable time together. He just sort of grunted in response. I frowned. Getting his heart rate up would cheer him up. It always cheered me up. Seeing the ocean would cheer him up.

"Emerald!" A voice called, an olding, balding voice that sounded like he was all stuffy inside. It was Archibald. I sighed. Of course he would see me, of course he would catch me. That was right, I was grounded. Grounded in a castle, but grounded all the same.

I hated that word, grounded. The ground was the last place I wanted to be. I wanted to take flight, I wanted to go, to soar. I didn't… want to be dependent on a Pokemon who didn't seem to like me in order to get that sort of freedom. Grounded, just thinking the word made me shudder. I stopped. I knew it was no use to try and fight Archibald. He and his Chatot were surprisingly powerful. Chatot was a parrot looking Pokemon with a music note head. He could sing any tune, including notes that were totally impossible for other creatures to produce. I did like to listen to him, but he didn't like to be listened to. I had gotten quite good at hiding from him in order to hear his song. I did not know how they got so good at magic.

I didn't know why I was so bad at magic. I guessed it was just something you were born with, and I had been born unlucky. I… had been born unlucky… Was that really true, was there really nothing I could, nothing I could have done, I meant. Well, I wasn't going to let that stop me. I didn't let that stop me. I had already won, I just had to sharpen my skills now.

"Sorry, Archibald." I said. I was not sorry.

"Back to your room, then. Off with you."

"Go think about what you did. This will teach you responsibility. You can't be so reckless." Chatot finished. The two were strangely of one mind. The two of them often finished each other's sentences. It actually became slightly creepy at times. I didn't pay much attention to it, most of the time. I mostly just listened to them and considered them the same person.

So I dragged myself back to my room, my head held low, drooping. Ray was looking at me strangely, I was sure. I didn't care. He could look at me like that for the rest of my life, everyone else already did. This guy who was supposed to be my partner in crime. That's how it was for the rest of them. What made me so different? What made it… wrong? Why were things so wrong? Was it me? Did I do something wrong? Or was I just born wrong? Maybe there was another world that I was more suited for. Heh, what a cool world that would be?

"What's happening? No more adventure?" Ray asked in a mocking tone.

"Not right this moment… I'm grounded." I sighed.

"Grounded?" He asked. Seemed Ray wasn't familiar with the concept. Was that not something they had in his world?

"I'm not allowed to go outside and adventure with you. Last time someone got hurt." I chuckled. "It wasn't even my fault, and he said as much to them, but I get punished all the same. Apparently if I was a good leader I'd take the blame. Doesn't make much sense to me." I said, I looked at Ray. He didn't have much of a reaction. That seemed to be a common theme here, huh?

"So… we're staying inside?" Ray asked.

"Yes." I sighed, defeated for the moment.

"To the library, then." He said.

"We were just there."

"Yes." Without any further response than that, he started floating ahead of me, and I found myself walking forward, despite myself. Ah, so this was what I was doing to him. It didn't hurt or anything, I just was being dragged along to the library. I really didn't want to go back to the library.

"Why do you want to go BACK to the library, the lessons are done for today!"

"To read books." He said simply. Why would he want to go back in there and read? Well, I guessed it was just as good as any other activity you could do trapped in the castle. Still, I wasn't about to let an entire afternoon go to waste. I would let Ray take me to the library. I had a plan to escape. There was a path from the library that went outside that I was pretty sure Archibald didn't know I knew about. I could use that to my advantage. I couldn't go to the kids, sure. It was important for them to explore, but their folks were probably pretty cautious right about now, and would let Archibald know. It would have to be just me and Ray, but I would be able to show him something great, something to get him to stay.

And so, we got back to the library. Lilly was still around, so I couldn't make my escape right now. Why was Lilly still in here? What did she… even do when she wasn't teaching? It occurred to me that I didn't actually know. I only ever saw her when she was being a teacher. I'd seen her a few times outside, sure, but I was doing things then, so I never really, uh… paid attention to what exactly she was doing.

"I had a feeling you would be back." Lilly said, smiling a little.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Not you, Em. I'm talking to Ray." I glanced over at Ray. He looked more at ease in this room. He liked the library, alright. That was going to be a problem. This was the most boring place ever. The only purpose it served was to be the backdrop for magic lessons. "I think you'd like this one." Lilly said, and handed Ray a big leather-bound book. Ray took it in his hands, blew some of the dust off, and opened it.

"What is it?" Ray asked.

"History of the kingdom. I thought you might be interested." Lilly replied. Ray nodded and settled down on a couch to read.

"So I just have to sit here?" I asked. That pissed me off.

"Compromise is the stuff of relationships. Especially for you two." She said. I hated this. I had things I wanted to do. Time was wasted here, there was nothing cool to do in a library! But he was anchored here, and he anchored me here. I wondered what exactly the tether was, and why and how it connected us. It was probably made of magic or something, but what was magic. Magic was nature, it was a farce of nature, but why exactly did it tether us? That was probably going to be a mystery forever, either that or it was some really complicated answer that I couldn't even begin to understand. He had dragged me, and I had dragged him. What governed that? Maybe… strength of will?

"That's right, Emerald, compromise." Ray said, shooting me a snarky grin. Was he really this petty?

"Remember that, Ray." I snapped back. Maybe I was just as petty. Haha, maybe we belonged together after all? I was going to make him eat those words… with a fork… Yeah, that would show him!

Arceus, I was bored. How long was he going to be here? Or, more importantly, how long was Lilly going to be there. As long as she was around, I couldn't make a move to leave. I already knew my route to escape. There were so many hidden little doorways and passageways in this palace. If I wanted to hide from my sisters, from my problems, I could do it with or without magic. But no, she stayed there, and Ray continued to read. So I sat.

Seriously, why was Lilly just sitting there? She wasn't really doing anything, she was just there. I didn't stand directly at her, cause then she would know I was staring. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Guardevoir poke her head out from behind the book case again. Her face was bright red, I thought that was what I saw, anyways. I looked up to confirm what I thought I saw, and as I did, she ducked behind the book case, again. Did she… did she like Ray? Was she enamored with Ray? That was adorable! That could be just the thing to get Ray to like things here, not try to leave, a girlfriend! And Guardevoir was a great catch, too. She was beautiful and nice, a bit shy though, but she liked things peaceful, and it seemed like maybe Ray did too.

Lilly put a hand on Guardevoir's shoulder, in a form of comfort. Guardevoir seemed to gain courage, then, balled her fist in determination, and walked up to Ray. She gave him a tiny tap to get his attention. He didn't seem to feel it, he was engrossed in the book. She tapped a little harder and he looked up.

"Huh? Yes?"

"Hello…" She whispered.

"Hi. What do you want?" Ray asked.

"Do you want to… maybe… hang out some time?" Guardevoir asked.

"No." He said simply. And that was that. She absolutely deflated. She took all of her courage, and it was for nothing. Wow, Ray was cold, colder than I thought, turning down a petty girl like that so harshly. I wanted to retaliate, but Lilly put up her hands in protest. Ok, I backed down, but only for her. And I would tell him about it once she was gone. Which, I was pretty sure she was about to leave, since Guardevoir was the reason she was staying, I was willing to bet.

Yep, there she went, Lilly was comforting Guardevoir, and they were leaving out the room. Good, good. I waited a few moments and then ripped the book from Ray's hands.

"Emerald!" he yelled. But I knew nobody would come. People yelling at me was way normal. I grinned, a glint in my eyes. I pulled Ray towards the hidden passage, and he pulled back. It was a tug of war.

"Ray, I have something I need you to see." I explained.

"You aren't allowed out." Ray countered.

"Ae you going to listen to a stuffy guy like him?" I asked. Archibald, in my honest opinion, was not worth listening to. We were going out. That was what was going to happen.

"If I go with you… will you leave me in peace for a while?" Ray asked after a long while.

"Yeah, sure." I said. I knew he would fall in love with this place. The world, not necessarily this kingdom. He sighed. Compromise was everything, huh? Seemed it was already working.

"Fine, then. I'll go with you."

"Yay!" I grinned. Before he could decide otherwise. "But…uh, now that I think about it, we should wait until night time. So… read your books, I guess." I rolled my eyes. I had been silly. They would be looking for me come dinner time, and I didn't know it I'd be back by then. Plus, if I was caught at any time, I'd be in a lot of trouble. Ray won for now, but he conceded, and I wasn't about to let him skip out on it. We would wait until bed. Nobody checked on me after lights out. I handed the book back. He snatched it back from me with a huff, and went back to the couch to read.

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 **Will Affa remember to upload regularly? The world my never know, but I'm up to chapter like 40 something on this story already, so it's just a matter of remembering. Have an awesome day!**


	15. Something She Shouldn't Have

**Ray's POV**

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"So, what do you do on an adventure, exactly?" Ray asked. We emerged from the secret exit at the rear of the castle, the sky pitch black.

"Explore? What else do you think you do?" Emerald asked in response. She had a point I guessed, and adventure implied some sort of exploration. Usually, though, it had some sort of point to it. There was some sort of objective, right? People didn't just adventure for the sake of it? Or did they? Was that the right word for it, or could people adventure with no goal, and the word I was thinking of was journeyed? Who cared? Well, there wasn't much else for me to do to occupy my mind as I was being dragged along by some… immature magicless child.

"Oh, my mistake, how could I ever be confused about something like that?" I asked, sarcasm just about dripping from my mouth.

"Good, I'm glad you understand how silly you sounded just then." Emerald said, winking at me. I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. I didn't dignify it with a response of any sort. As I understood it from her random outbursts, we were going to be exploring the depths of a cave that Emerald had apparently already got to the end of. It was a cave in a series of caves that essentially hollowed out the entire crater and ended outside, in the ocean, or, above it. At least, that was how I understood things.

"The catacombs." She said bouncily, she had a strange manner to her at all times. And, this was a totally different mood for her, weird in a different way, excited, almost too excited. Or perhaps, it was only too excited for me. Or perhaps… it reminded me too much of Mel. She was not Mel, and that upset me more than I could really express in thoughts right now.

"The catacombs." I repeated, deflated once again. She looked back at me and frowned. What, was she about to show a glimmer of empathy or pity or even, I didn't know, some sort of remorse for plucking me out of my life, in my prime?

"You're going to love it, there are… Well, I don't know, really. That's what's so exciting, you know? We aren't supposed to go in there, it's strictly forbidden to go into the catacombs. Dangerous, you know?" Emerald said. Nope, she was not about to have any pity or remorse, she was just going to talk more about adventuring. It figured. But wait, what was this? She was going somewhere she hadn't before, somewhere dangerous?

"I thought we were going to that cave with the ocean on the other end. The one you wouldn't shut up about." I continued to float along the side of the massive lake that the kingdom encircled, quiet so that we would not get caught. I was not doing that as a favor to her. Since we were bonded, we were seen somewhat as a single unit, two bunched together, always together. Why did it have to be with her? Any one of her sisters seemed like a better choice. Well, a lot of them were somewhat wild as well. At least they were more competent, though. With them, I would have something to work with at least. With Emerald, it seemed I had to throw out all of my training as a chosen one. None of it was even a little bit relevant to dealing with Emerald. I would not waste my training on her. I would not waste my quality time on her if I could help it. But of course, I could not help it.

I had to remember to ask Lilly about those exercises to loosen the tether that held us together. If I had to spend all of my time, day and night, this close to this girl… this idiot, immature… I was getting a little carried away.

I would also ask Lilly what I could do in terms of going back home. The oracle said the question wasn't one she could answer, so then, Lilly could, maybe. She seemed more empathetic of a person, anyways. She would have had to be, if she trained Emerald in magic as much as I was sure she would have had to. According to Emerald's ramblings as I was trying to read earlier, she was born with such a small magical potential, it almost couldn't be measured. She had to start from zero and build it up. She was persistent, I gave her that. She worked to get where she was.

"Later. I can't leave home until I've seen what there is to see here, then we can see the rest of the world." She said, definitively.

"Why are you only just now going to the catacombs? You've had plenty of time, haven't you?" She wasn't scared of danger, was she? She didn't seem like the type to even recognize danger when it was right in front of her face. She didn't seem like the type to recognize just about anything that was right in front of her face, unless she wanted to.

"I was always going to wait until I got my legend. Then we would explore whatever was left to see here, and then blow this popsicle stand." She paused awkwardly and scratched her head. "Of course, I thought there was going to be more places than this to explore, but I always left this one last one, since it's forbidden, anyways."

"And you're going to ignore that, now? Even though it would be stupid to leave now, seeing as you magic isn't very strong. You have to remember that means my power is not very great, either. I wouldn't be a whole lot of help to you, even if I wanted to be."

"Heh, you're so passive aggressive towards me. It's starting to get on my nerves, a bit." She said.

"Then send me back home!" I snapped.

"No, I'm not going to do that!"

"Oh, so you know how to do that?!"

"No, I do not!"

We stared at each other for a very long time. I didn't believe her for a second, but she held fast, and eventually walked away like nothing had happened. With a sigh, I followed suit. This was my life now. This… was my life now. I didn't know why I was giving up on this so easily right now? I was just tired. I wasn't giving up for good, though. I would find a way back to Meliae if it killed everyone else. Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but I was willing to go pretty far. Emerald, or Lilly, or someone in this world would give me a way out, back to my world, back to my love.

"Just remember your promise." I muttered. She would leave me in peace, I was excited for that. It was a pathetic thing to get excited about. What was this world doing to me?

"Of course." She said, though there was a hint of a mischievous smile I could see on her face in the moonlight. It was not a particularly bright moon. "Good for stealth, under cover of darkness, you know?" She said.

"Did you just… did you just read my mind?" I asked.

"What? No, you were looking up at the moon, so I made a comment about it."

"You don't always have to make a comment, you know." I said. She merely shrugged in response, and kept going. We were nearing the cascades, now. The marble square where she had stood during the ceremony was still there, water flowing around it at a modest pace.

"Yes I do." She said, a grin on her face. She enjoyed annoying me, huh? That was… not a good sign for my future. I felt like she didn't have proper respect for me. Perhaps I would have to teach her sometime, just how bad I could be if I was pushed too far. Although… I couldn't imagine anything good would come to me if I attacked Emerald… a princess in this world. Guards and other such people would be all over me in an instant. I wasn't incredibly confidant I could beat that many people, especially in this weakened state. "We're going back in there." She said, pointing to the mouth of the cave.

"You do realize this means you get to walk through the water, again. Unless you can summon up the winds. I'm not going to carry you." I scoffed.

'Well, I was going to try what I learned to get the winds to carry me. But, if that doesn't work, I'm dressed for it, this time." Emerald gestured to her outfit. She had on a simple tunic and pants with boots. "I didn't have a problem going through the water, it was going through the water barefoot in a silk dress that bothered me." Emerald explained.

And so, once again, I watched her slog through the water. This time, though, I was behind her, so I could really see what was going on. She did seem unusually at home slogging through a river for a princess. Mel had some quirks, too. I wondered for a second if the two of them would get along, if they met. That was useless to think about, though. The two would not be meeting. I would go back to Mel, and Emerald could do whatever in the world she wanted, just in this world, not in my world. The energy she gave off was enough. I didn't know what it was, but she exhausted me, and exhausted my patience, and I had the feeling, from the day I had spent here, that she had a similar effect on others.

Without incident, we came once again to the Oracle's chamber. The Oracle was not there. Nobody was there, it was just an empty cavern. Wow, this was so exciting… I was absolutely blown away. The same thing I saw before, now featuring nobody in it.

"So, where ae the catacombs? Or is this it?"

"Course not, this is just the Oracle's chamber, we've been here. The Oracle is sleeping in her house, though, keep it down, the walls echo." It seemed more like a reminder to herself than anything else, because, as she said it, she suddenly got quieter. "It's beyond." She pointed off into the darkness. If I squinted, I could see the faint outlines of some caves beyond. There were several of them.

"Which one should we go in?" We would be done with this soon enough, and hopefully that would calm her for a good while and I could figure out a way back. Even if nobody told me… the answer had to be in the library, somewhere. It wasn't in the history I read today, but there were hundreds, thousands of other books to check. The knowledge I wanted had to be in one of them, right? I just had to find it.

"Any of them are fine, it's not an adventure if it's dictated, huh? How about you choose one." Emerald smiled at me. At least, I thought she did, I could barely see in this darkness, and her gem light was nowhere near her face, and very dim to not attract a lot of attention.

"Fine, uh… that one." I pointed at one at random. Well, at first I just pointed in some random direction, but then I heard something. "Do you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" She asked.

"There's something in that direction…" I pointed at a different cave. It was incredibly indistinct, I couldn't tell what it was exactly, but I heard something, like talking, like rustling. It was a sound that caves did not make by themselves. That meant we were not alone?

"Probably a dangerous Pokemon. Let's go check it out." Emerald whispered. Quite a strange one, wasn't she, going towards danger like that? Behavior like that was going to get her killed someday. I said I would go along with her, though. Besides, I was pretty curious myself. What was down here that it was forbidden? Sure, there could be dangerous Pokemon, territorial, perhaps, but I saw the prowess of the royal family, or at least caught a glimpse of it. I had no doubt in my mind they could handle any battle they might get themselves into. So, what was in here that even the royal family stayed away?

We started through the tunnel, and the noises started to grow ever so slightly louder, more distinct. It was definitely voices, that became clear. The voices were talking in hushed whispers, and I could not make out what it was they were saying. Why would there be whispering? Who was in here?

The tunnel was also quite a tight fit. We had to go in a single file line, and even then, I had to maneuver a little to make sure my whole body could get around the rocks unscathed. I was able to do it, though, and the voices got clearer and more distinct.

"We don't have all that much more time to prepare. We can fuss over the details of a prophecy." I heard one of them say, and there were whispered agreements, it sounded like. I thought I recognized this voice, but I couldn't place it.

"Have a people been chosen?" This voice I most certainly did not recognize.

"Yes, my lord." Said the first voice. "It will be a group that lives far off on the western shores. Not many around would miss them, or even notice they were gone, perhaps."

What? Not many would miss them? Now my interest was piqued. Whoever these people were, they were planning to send some people away or…something worse than that, make them disappear one way or another. That did not bode well.

"That's my dad." Emerald whispered, her face shocked into expressionlessness.

"Are you sure?" I asked. I had a hard time believing a king would do something like that. Rulers were supposed to care for their people, not make them disappear ominously. At least, that was the way things were in my world. Since Emerald seemed surprised, I had the feeling that this was not supposed to be happening.

"Yes. Shh." Emerald said. I resented being shushed, but obeyed anyways. Only a fool would speak loudly at a time like this, with people around who didn't know you were around who may or may not be planning to make some people disappear. Emerald inched forward, and so did I.

There was a group of about two dozen people. I recognized ten of them. Emerald's eight sisters, and their parents, the king and queen. There were also a lot of people I didn't recognize, and a cloaked figure at the center of the circle. Well, I used circle as a loose term, it was more like a clump. This seemed somewhat… casual? Like maybe this was more of just a meeting than some ceremony? Ceremonies here seemed to have a lot of pomp and circumstance, just like back home. This was not, though. They just sort of sat around, casually talking. They had respect for each other, sure, that much was clear.

"Huh, I think I heard something." The youngest one, Platinum said. I was fairly sure that was who that was, the youngest sister, right? She was the one with the Giratina, and there he was next to her. She alerted them to our presence, and before I knew what was going on, I was shoved onto the floor, in the middle of the circle.

This was bound to be trouble.

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 **Welp, this took a turn, and also a cliffhanger, hope you enjoyed, and have an awesome day!**


	16. By Necessity

**Emerald's POV**

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"No need to shove our guests." The guy with the black cloak said. His voice was deep and resonant, and I had never heard it before. I… I knew I hadn't seen everything in this kingdom, but this was my family. Unless it was some sort of clone? That would be a crazy twist, but I was pretty sure there wasn't cloning technology, so I had to assume this was in fact my family. So who were the rest of these people, and what were they doing here?

"Apologies, my dark king." A guy said, one of the guys I had never seen before. Everyone's reaction to seeing me here was… mixed. Some looked annoyed, outright disgusted, or, even… a little sad? At least, that was what I thought. It was possible it was all just in my imagination, the room was not very well lit. I thought at first, because I couldn't see that well, it might actually not be my family, and maybe I heard wrong. But no, I was very much right. Their Pokemon were with them. It could be nobody else.

"May I?" My mother stepped forward, her and her Cresselia. Her voice sounded strange. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. She was different somehow. She sounded… shallow, maybe? I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, or what exactly was the change, what was causing it. Was she… somehow… not her, right now? Some sort of fake, some sort of show? No, my mind was going off the rails a little bit. I needed some more information before I jumped to a lot of conclusions about the situation. The cloaked figure nodded over to my mom, and she stepped forward. Something was very wrong. My mother was not one to take orders from anyone. She was her own woman. She didn't even let her husband order her around. So why did she wait to step forward until she got permission from this guy.

"Emerald, my dear-"

"What's going on, mom? You guys are sort of freaking me out, you know." I laughed nervously, but nobody seemed to be laughing along. I looked backwards at Ray for any kind of support. He was looking back and forth between the figures warily. He sensed danger, and so did I. But, it was my family. A lot of them teased me and made me feel horrible about myself, but they weren't a danger. So then… what was I feeling?

"I know this must be strange for you, but in actuality, I am glad you found us. Now that you have Ray with you, and some magic, you can officially join the court." She said. What were the words she was saying? The… court?

"I'm already a part of the court. I- I'm a princess." I stuttered because, before I even finished my sentence, I was cut off by laughter. They were laughing at me, my sisters and the others. Who even were they? Were they citizens I hadn't seen? What in the world was going on here? Only my parents and the dark hood guy didn't laugh.

"This is the court that runs the kingdom, dear." Mom said. "And this is our dark king." Mom said with a completely straight face. I burst out laughing, which, ironically, made everyone else stop laughing.

This was… what was this? It was ridiculous was what it was…absolutely ridiculous. A dark king, a shadow court, sounded like something out of a fairy tale, a story. Something that couldn't possibly be reality. They all had straight faces, though.

"His power is not to be taken lightly. I am part of his court. Together, we run this kingdom." My dad said. Wait, was this where he was all the time? With this weird guy in a hood? Was that why he was neve around, and all my sisters. Heh, if that was the truth… no wonder I didn't feel like I fit in with the rest of the family. How often did they gather together like this? How much time did they all spend together without me? I felt a poke on the back, and turned to Ray. He gestured over to the people who just so happened to have cut off our exit. Welp. That wasn't a good sign. What was happening that they did not want us to escape? Was this some sort of trap, some weird punishment for sneaking out at night? If it was that… they were being weirdly specific about it. Something was very wrong with my family. I did not feel safe, right now, but I could not run. So, instead, I stalled for more time, more information.

"Then why even bother to have the normal court?" I asked, my voice shaking a little.

"Appearances. I don't think some of our citizens would accept the dark king, even though he created this place." Dad said. So what he was saying was that he was just a figurehead, someone who acted like king while someone else was actually pulling the strings. That didn't sit right with me. No, that was an understatement, that pissed me off! My dad worked hard for all his citizens. But he wasn't even in charge, this other guy was? And who was he, anyways? Who was this mysterious man in the hood? The Shadow King? What even was that? It sounded so fake, like something a kid pretending would come up with.

"And what's this about making a group on the western shores disappear?" Ray asked. Oh, ok, that was a little reckless, now wasn't it? I was planning on sort of building up to that one. I knew I wasn't one to be talking about recklessness. I was as reckless as they came, just… now did not seem like the time. Every muscle in my body was tense. I felt the seconds tick by, it felt like an eternity. Were they not answering, or had time just slowed in my mind. Or, alternatively, Diamond was messing with me again, making my perception of time all wonky on purpose. My sisters were laughing again, and the people behind us made a tighter loop around us. If there had been any way to run around them before, the opportunity was gone now. This wasn't good at all. Was I… Was I about to die or something? Life have just begun for me, my place in this world… my place in the world had only just been established. Or was it? Was this the world I was trying to be a part of? My mother shifted uncomfortably, my father looked over at the hooded figure, and the hooded figure stepped forward to speak.

"This world is ruled by magic, and I can grant you powerful magic. I invite you into my court, Emerald. Please accept the invitation." He said.

"You didn't answer the question." I said, stalling, That was quite the question, and not one I really wanted to answer yet. I had the feeling neither answer woud go very well. This world was ruled by magic. I knew that already, that was why I had been trying so hard for so long to get any sort of magical ability. It meant everything in the world. But… what did that have to do with some shadow court? What did that have to do with lying to our people? It didn't matter if this was 'for the best' or whatever half baked excuse that they could come up with, they were lying to the people, or they were lying to me, neither of those were ok.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There is only so much power in the world." The hooded figure said. "If you want more than that, you must join us. Pledge loyalty to me, the true king, and we shall welcome you."

My face twitched. This felt like a weird dream, a really weird dream. Was I still asleep, secretly? I would wake up in the castle, everything just as normal as ever. I closed my eyes, in hopes that that might happen. Instead, I heard Ray's voice… trembling, ever so slightly, or was that my imagination, or was this whole thing my imagination? No, my imagination had never cooked up anything like this before, besides, typically when you imagine something, you had to actually imagine it on purpose. There was no way I would make something like this in my mind on purpose.

"So… if I'm hearing this correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong… you are going to make some people disappear… in order to boost your own power?" Ray asked. I heard him snarl behind me, that was a new noise. I hoped my family did not see me flinch. I wasn't afraid of my own familiar, I had just never heard that noise before, and it came out of nowhere. "No, I refuse to answer to any king with that kind of doctrine. It's just the opposite, sacrifice your own power to give to your people. I will never support death at the altar of power." Ray said. That was really well said. He had a strong opinion about this, huh? He had strong principles. I could respect that. And since he has already spoken, and we would be considered one unit, it was already too late for me to make any attempt to finesse my way out of there.

"I agree." I said simply. All eyes were on me, stern and judgmental. I felt extreme malice coming from all directions. Were we about to die?

"I ask you to reconsider." My mother said, a soothing voice in all this, although something about it was still strange, hollow, something did not ring true, and it frightened me. "Now that you know, we cannot let you leave without becoming part of the court and swearing your life to secrecy."

No, that was the exact phrase I did not want to hear falling from the lips of my mother. I knew what that meant… join or die… or be severely hurt or stopped in some way. I looked back at Ray and we locked eyes. This was just about the first thing we agreed on, not killing people. It was sort of ridiculous that THAT was the kind of situation that was necessary to rally us together. The look in his eyes told me that he wouldn't back down, and he wouldn't let me back down either. I spoke for the two of us.

"The answer is no." I said, with as much firmness of resolve in body and mind as I could muster. Everyone around me seemed to darken, their intent became much more malicious. They got into strange poses, perhaps a fighting stance, or perhaps a position in which to do powerful magic.

"Wait, my lord, may I deal with this? I wish to demonstrate your power." Some guy I had never seen said. They all turned to look at the cloaked figure, who seemed to pause to consider the man's proposition.

"You may proceed." The dark king said, after a little bit of thought. I could almost feel a smirk on his face, right now, even though his face was completely hidden in shadow.

The man stepped forward, and the ring spread out around us a little, but it didn't feel any less restrictive, like we were caught in a noose, tightening, te ground under our feet about to disappear, our necks about to snap. This sudden wash of impending doom. I had never felt anything like it in my life.

"We're going to have to fight our way out." I whispered to Ray, although I wasn't sure why I bothered to do that, they could all clearly hear me. My sisters were here, any of them could have taken us on, but the shadow king chose this guy. What was his familiar? He was no royal, so it could not be a legendary, perhaps Dragonite or something, a really strong dragon.

I heard a scurrying on the ground. His familiar was a Rattatta. Wait, what? Was he kidding me? Ray could squish that thing with his claws, while tied in a giant knot like the green noodle he was. Ray seemed to have a similar reaction. He was laughing, although I thought it was mostly to try and cut some of the tension, which was overwhelming right now.

But then he stopped laughing as he was knocked backwards into the opposite wall… by Rattatta attacking him. I stared at him for a second, dumbfounded. There was no way that should have been possible… unless… his magic prowess was incredibly high, connected to his familiar, which made him strong. But to make a Rattatta that powerful would take some truly miraculous magic prowess, more powerful than any other citizen I had ever seen, plus several members of the royal family. That wasn't right. A citizen should not be more powerful than a member of the royal family. Something strange was going on here. We were born with higher magical powers, but he was not… and yet his Rattatta… had knocked Ray on whatever his version of a butt was.

Once Ray recovered from the shock, he threw himself into the fray. A bit of a prideful one, wasn't he? Not to be beaten by such a normally puny Pokemon, although they had aleady proved something was different. Their fight moved across the entire cave area, and I saw our chance. The circle had broken when the fight broke out, and we were attached, so I ran and ran, and dragged Ray with me.

We went back through the cave, twisting and turning. These people were trying to kill us, and these people were my family? I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening, it was all too fast, everything… everything. What was I going to do? My first instinct was to run home, across the lake, to hide. My family and the guard could protect me… except they were the ones who were after us right now.

So, what would we do? I turned my gem light off so that they at least couldn't follow us quite as easily. But, that meant that we couldn't really see, either. Well, I couldn't really see, at least. I had no idea what Ray's night vision was like. I groped in the darkness, letting my sense of touch guide me. It didn't guide me very well. We were in complete darkness, we came to an opening, maybe the opening we had been in before. No, this was not the Oracle's chamber. If it was, I would have heard the water, felt the carvings in the floor with my feet. We were in another opening. That meant… we were lost.

And still, we heard the scurrying of the super powered Rattatta and the guy with him, his heavy breathing. Heh, maybe he had a lot of magical prowess, somehow… more than a guy like that should. That was the kind of power you only saw in the royal family. Who was this guy? Anyways, he had a lot of magical prowess, but that didn't make a whole lot of a difference when it came to running through a cave. I wanted no part of fighting them. If a little rat could throw back and overwhelm a seven foot dragon, I really did not want to see what it could do to a human.

And eventually, the sounds faded. They gave up, or at least retreated for now, and let us be. Was this a permanent thing? Probably not. We would have to deal with that again, I knew it. For now, though… for now, we were safe.

Er, well, safe was a relative term. We were completely lost in the catacombs. I knew my way about most of the caves found here, but I had never been in this specific set of tunnels before. We didn't have a lot of time, either. I didn't bring any food, because I thought this would be a quick trip, and then back to the castle. There were very few supplies. I had only a few tools to help with exploration. One of those was the gem light. Thankfully, that didn't really run out of energy. It would have to do as our only light. I turned it on and saw we were in a small tunnel. There must have been a water source somewhere nearby, because the rocks were damp. Well, I wanted to be free of this place, go out and explore with Ray. Now I would.

* * *

 **Hope you ave an awesome day!**


	17. A Way Out

**Ray's POV**

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"Well, here we are, our destination." I looked over at Emerald, a sour expression on my face, not that she could see it, she didn't have the light pointed anywhere near me. The light was pointing ahead, always ahead.

"This is not our destination. Our destination…" She trailed off, I could hear a frown on her face. She did not have a plan for this, did she? Hm, well, that was why we ended up here, in the middle of a weird cave labyrinth where you could easily die and nobody would ever find the bodies.

I… needed a minute, myself, to process what had happened. I was knocked around by a Rattatta. That hurt a lot, not just my body, but my pride. I was a chosen one, a legend in this world. There were a million Rattatta in the world, and none of them were supposed to be that powerful. Then again, maybe it wasn't that incredibly strong? It was stronger than the norm, but I was weaker than my norm, is what I meant. If we had been back in my world, if I hadn't been connected with this magic efficient child, there was no way I was going to go down so easy.

"Is home, but that isn't happening for you, is it?" I asked. She shushed me. What, was she afraid of me telling her the truth?! I would not be silenced! "What, afraid?" I asked.

"Yes. Are you not?" Emerald sounded like she was holding her breath, along with a lot of tension in her body. "That was… what was that? What just happened to us, couldn't be real, could it be? My family was chasing us? It's like a nightmare, it doesn't feel the least bit real." She spoke in a somewhat creepy monotone, like she wasn't herself, like she was recounting some horror.

"A little, I suppose." I said, there was a small buzzing inside me that could have been fear, but it also might have been hunger. "We should find a way out, before making any other decisions. You know going back to the castle is not an option, no?" I asked.

"I know."

"Your plans for when we get out?" I asked.

"I don't know." She said, somewhat hollow, resembling her mother's tone from earlier. It creeped me out a little, how similar the two of them sounded. Hollow…this crater, hollow. I was comfortable inside, but I did not want to spend any more time in this oppressive cave than I had to.

"Your plans to get out in the first place?" I asked.

"I don't know." She repeated, just as hollow in her speaking. Why did she suddenly sound like this? Was she about to do something weird? Or was this just what distress sounded like for her, or shock, maybe distress was not the right word.

Welp, seemed I was more or less on my own here. That was fine, all I had to do was survive and drag her along, whether she had the energy to go and survive, or not. Now, was there any way, any way to actually tell where we were? I was pretty sure there was not. The rocks were damp, but that didn't necessarily mean a thing, especially in terms of directions.

I… how did I get myself wrapped up in this. I could have been with Mel, enjoying our life together by now, but no, Emerald decided it was a good time to call me from my world and then immediately have to hide in a cave from her own parents. I was supposed to be king, training to be king, but no, instead I was here, stuck in a cave.

"Well, that's helpful. I'll think of one myself. Let's keep moving, at least. There can come no good of sitting here, except maybe some conserved energy, though that will also be burned just sitting here, might as well keep moving." Maybe we would find something. Something, anything. I waited for her snarky comeback, or something from her, but there was nothing. She was really shaken, huh? She was really quite shaken.

Well, that was understandable. This was her family we were talking about, that would be like if Meliae or Mewtwo were suddenly evil and wanted me dead because… well, because I knew their secret? Not that they had a secret, this was just an example. I wasn't sure there was enough Emerald did to justify attempted murder like that? And why were they trying to hide, anyways? They were already in power, but they needed to stay in power? Were they afraid someone like Emerald was going to take the power away from them, the power to carry on with whatever it was they were planning, with making people disappear? So they could carry on with seriously strong magic, magic like I couldn't even begin to process. They needed to be in power so they wouldn't be found, so they wouldn't be questioned. Everything seemed so peaceful on the surface, then again, that was how it went, wasn't it? A secret shadow court needed a peaceful, nice court to cover it up, to distract the people from what was really going on.

"My family… my own family." I could hear her say it over and over, mumble it under her breath, like a secret prayer. A wish that it wasn't true. I had the feeling, though, that her prayers would go unanswered. Nobody was coming out and telling us we had been pranked.

What if I dug a tunnel, just straight up? I knew that might disrupt the caves people lived in and such, but now was not the time to mince words or actions. Did I even have power like that to clear away the rock walls? I was pretty sure I could, but who knew how much my power took a hit from being with her? I did not know yet, I hadn't had the chance to test out the new limitations of my power. I did not think that would affect the strength of my claws, would it? Did the bond affect physical strength as well as magical strength? I had never had to worry about something like that before, because I had been pretty strong in both. I reeled back and clawed at the rock. Nothing. It figured.

"What are you doing?" Emerald asked. That was surprising, I didn't think she would be in the mood to talk, what with her mumbling about her family and being sad.

"Seeing if I can break through the walls." I said, trying to dig my nails into the rock. The rock gave, a little. This was not enough to actually do anything. I pushed harder, but it didn't give any more.

"Could you do that before?" She asked. The hollow tone had faded from her voice, at least for now. I wished I could say yes, and had a cool story about me decimating stone with my bare claws, but there was no such story, and I wasn't about to lie for no good reason.

"No idea." But it was worth a shot, wasn't it? Sure, it was worth a shot. I tried a few more times, putting all the strength and leverage I could muster in this small space. It did not work.

"What happened to keep moving?" She asked, a bit of her snark coming out. She did have a point, though. This wasn't working, I could have seen that from the second or third time this wasn't working and moved on. I had never encountered this sort of situation before, I never explored a cave. I heard noises, and I wasn't sure if they were regular cave noises or something I had to be worried about. Emerald didn't look very worried, but she didn't look very… anything. Her reaction to things was not going to be a good indication of anything right now.

We stayed in there longer and longer, and as we grew hungry, we grew irritable, as one does. We wandered through caves aimlessly. Wasn't she supposed to be this great cave explorer? She was doing absolutely nothing to help, right now, only really moving along because I was making her.

"Why'd you have to drag me into this?" I snapped under my breath.

"What was that?" Emerald asked.

"I waited for you for years, and I gave up and started to have a life there… and then, THEN you decide, whoa, it's time to suddenly have some magic and rip Ray from his life! I know you know the way to cut the tether and send me back, too. I know you do, I saw it in your eyes, you liar." I said, my voice suddenly very cold. I was even a little surprised it came out like that, but I didn't back down, either. She stared at me for a long time, shocked, it seemed, by just how serious I was about this. Of course I was serious about this. This was my life I was talking about, and I did not need or want my life to revolve around her. Finally, after a few moments, Emerald spoke.

"So what if I do?" She said sweetly, her tone almost mocking. No, not almost mocking, she was mocking me, even if, at this exact moment, she wasn't mocking me with those words… this whole situation. She was mocking me.

"What?" I spat.

"So what if I do." She repeated, more definitively now. She stood her ground. "I'm not going to do it, regardless of what you do, or say. I will not send you back." Emerald said. Even though the cave was black, I could swear I saw red. However, I was willing to give her a chance. Fine, I would hear her out. Nothing good could come from me losing my temper.

"Why not?" I asked, keeping my voice as even tempered as I could.

"Does it matter?" Emerald asked in return. I swear, I almost lost it, but I held back, reigned in.

"Yes." I said through grit teeth. "What reason could you possibly have to justify taking me away from my wife on the day of our wedding?!" I could hear my voice get louder as the sentence progressed. This was not ok, this was not ok, I was not ok. This would never be ok. Somewhere out there, Mel was waiting for me, but I was stuck with Emerald in this cave instead. What would Mel say if she saw me now? There was no honor to be found in this life, babysitting a magically inept princess. Plus… if what we saw was the truth… then this whole thing was corrupted. We weren't supposed to be doing some weird dark magic thing, we were supposed to help hold up the pillars of reality, to make sure the world was safe and livable for the citizens.

Did the others, the other chosen ones… have a choice in the matter? I saw them there in the circle. They didn't look me in the eye, back there. They didn't seem to be very active participants. My friends that I had made. I guessed I would never have the chance to catch up, now. What did they think about all this? Or, did they just go along with what the princesses did? That was more or less what we were trained to do, back at the palace. I sort of deviated from my training once I thought I wasn't going to use it anymore, and I sure as heck was not about to just go along with whatever she did without a fight, without compromise. I could think for myself, I had my own ideas of what was right and wrong. The question was, did the others?

"I'm a princess. We are nothing, literally nothing without our familiars. I worked hard to summon you, and I'm not giving up everything just to get you back." She crossed her arms. That was her final answer.

I lunged at her, I was beyond solace, beyond comprehension. I just wanted to get back, I just wanted to eat. I wanted to sleep, I wanted my love. That wasn't too much to ask, was it? Things back the way they were? She was perfectly willing to sacrifice my life on the altar of her own, but refused to give up anything so that I could get back mine. And there was nothing I could do about it, nothing. It was unbelievably frustrating. And so I did the only thing I felt I had any control over, I lunged at her, and she fell back, dodging my blow by an inch or two.

"You too, huh?" She frowned as she fell back, and started to run. Of course, that was useless, because as soon as she started running, she just dragged me along with her. I was attached to her by a metaphysical bond, a metaphysical tether, and so she could not run away from me… and I could not run away from her, unless she was willing to set me free, and she was not. I was a prisoner in this world. Great, that was exactly what I needed.

And so I was dragged through tunnel after tunnel, except this time, I wanted to follow her, because when I caught her, I would hurt her. Was it taking out my anger on something? Yes. She was the one causing the anger, though. I was justified. I would say the law was on my side, but the law was the one chasing us right now, the one who had tried to kill us.

Well, maybe I would finish the job for them. No, I couldn't kill Emerald. If I killed her, she wouldn't be able to send me back. Chosen ones never returned once they left, even though their life span was longer than humans. My lifespan was certainly longer than a human's. So, that raised an interesting question. What happened to the Pokemon guardians one their charge died? It was a question I had never really considered before. I had always been so occupied with actually getting a charge in the first place. I could almost laugh bitterly, if I wasn't flying around, trying to catch Emerald.

"Send me back. I don't want to be here. I had a life." I caught her by to collar and threw her down on the ground, and after a second, found myself there as well. Oh right, I had made a bit of a mistake… I learned this. I knew, tugging at the back of my mind, there was a really good reason not to hurt your charge, to make sure they were protected. Pain was equally shared, although it was not physical pain. Well, it was, what I meant was, it didn't damage my body or anything. That didn't make it any less painful, though.

Emerald screamed, being hit, and it echoed through the halls. That wasn't good. If I was found, if we were found, that was it. That Rattatta, I didn't know what was up with it, but if kicked my butt. If they were all that powerful, which they had to be. I meant, that was a Rattatta. Our chances of being able to hide was low, and we needed to keep it as high as possible. That meant not doing stupid things like making her scream or something. We needed to get out of here as soon as possible, if we were to survive. Even if I wanted to hurt her, to back her into a corner, to force her to let me leave, I could not. It was as if nature itself were forcing me to take control of my temper and deal with things as they were. It was just… I was so frustrated. Why couldn't she just have left me be. I was sure she had something before me. She didn't literally need me for her life to begin, it was just some weird social convention. Social conventions were a difficult thing to break, but if anyone was able to do it, she was the one to do it successfully. But she had chosen not to. She wouldn't send me back, she knew how, but she wouldn't do it. I would have to think of a way. For now, though… I was on the ground, and suddenly, nothing in the world was as comfortable as the ground. I was so tired, so tired. I drifted to sleep.

Or, at least, I tried to. What amount of time passed, exactly, I simply could not say. Emerald was pushing me back and forth, trying to wake me up. I did not want to wake up. If I woke up, if I got up, I would have to face this reality again. That was not ok. I knew I shouldn't just dodge away from reality like that, but it was incredibly tempting.

"Leave me be." I moaned on the floor. If she would just let me escape for a while, if only in my mind, back to the palace, back to Mel and her warm embrace, her gentle leaves, the flower she kept on her head, so pretty and sweet smelling.

"Ray, I smell the ocean! Get up, I can smell the ocean!" That managed to stir me. I sniffed the air, I did smell the light scent of salt. That was the ocean, that meant we were almost there! I managed to get myself up and floating again. Emerald seemed to be a bit more animated than that, even though she just got thrown in the floor.

Was she that excited to get out? I could understand, of course, I wanted to get out, too, but there was something else fueling her, and I wasn't sure what it was. We followed tunnel after tunnel until we saw light. Light! That meant the end of this. We could finally… we could… we could regroup, at least. Get some food. That was the best I was hoping for, right now.

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 **Hope you enjoyed! Have a lovely day!**


	18. A Rough Start

**Emerald's POV**

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The ocean, the ocean! I had caught a glimpse of it before, and now it was calling me again, the breeze, the scent. Freedom was just around the corner, all I had to do was reach out to it. Just a little bit more.

I ran towards the light with everything I had. It was a faint light, if that was the outside, and I was almost sure it was, it was not daytime. It was still night? Or had a whole day passed? I had to admit, I didn't have the best grasp on the concept of time, a bad sense of how much time had passed.

And there it was, the exit! I burst through… and almost fell down the rocky cliff to my death. Nah, I probably wouldn't have died. Ray would have saved me, or then again, maybe he would not. I rubbed my arm where he pushed and left a little scratch mark. But I didn't think I would have died there, anyways. That would have been a lame place to die. There had barely even been any adventure between the two of us. That would not be a good story.

The mouth of the cave, it was the same one I had come to just a few days ago with the kids. The kids… I wanted to see them, tell them everything would be ok before I left. They deserved to know it was going to be ok. Those kids… I wasn't abandoning them, but I needed to think of my own safety right now. I couldn't advocate for them or do cool things from them if I was dead, you know? I hoped they would know. I hoped the kid that fell would not be too resentful. I wasn't leaving forever, though. I'd at least come back for them.

The cave opened on a nearly straight cliff face that went all the way down to a deep, dark, tumultuous ocean below. I knew it probably wasn't that scary down there, but life or death situations, plus the darkness of the night, made everything a little bit scarier than they usually were.

"Now will you fly me?" I asked, just the tiniest bit bitter.

"I suppose I don't have much of a choice. However, you will not tell me how or where to fly. You have no control over my flight, and you never will. The sky is mine. You are merely along for the ride." He said. Harsh words from Ray, but I was pretty sure I understood. He did not want me intruding on something that was his. He did not want me to take away from it, or to take it for myself.

"That's fine. Are you good to go?" I asked. Ray nodded, and then positioned himself so that I could climb on his back. As soon as I was in position, we took off! And I mean we rocketed out of there, I had to hang on for dear life. I wrapped my arms around Ray and squeezed so I would not fall off. He was basically a flying snake, so there wasn't a lot of place for me to comfortably sit or anything. Something told me Rayquaza were not meant to be a steed.

Still, even with the wind rushing in my face, a feeling I wanted to feel for so long… with a Flygon. Those had a good place to sit. I was royalty, though, and I never wished I was not more than now, when I saw what being royalty meant for the rest of the family, weird dark magic, and making a people disappear. My father chose them to disappear.

I got off track for a second there. Even with the wind, I managed to look back to see the place we were leaving. The place I was born and raised, the place I never left in my entire life. It was just a large crater in the middle of the ocean. Ocean seemed to go on forever. There had to be other land somewhere. These western shore people had to be somewhere, after all. Unless it was the western shore of the lake? But nobody lived right on the shore of the lake. Whatever, I had to go under the assumption it wasn't there. I had people to save, people on the western shore.

Of course, now I was completely dependent on Ray to not drop me. Wait, could he even drop me? Was that a thing he could do, or would the tether drag him down with me, or would I just sort of hang in the air, dragged through the air by Ray? Would that hurt? I didn't particularly care to find out.

"Let's go west." I had to raise my voice significantly to be heard over the wind.

"One, I don't know which way is west. Two, what did I just say about you being along for the ride?" Ray replied. Oh, that was right. He didn't want me, and especially didn't want me on his back. I guess having a hundred plus weight on your back wasn't the best time.

"But what about those people. We have to save them, yeah? I know you wouldn't let a whole settlement of people be wiped out." He had to have some heroic bone in his body, some sort of empathy. It wasn't his species, and it wasn't his life, but I would do the same for a group of Rayquaza. Was that expecting too much of him? Who could say? Ray stayed silent for a long time, probably thinking about it. It shouldn't have been that hard to think about, but I would ty being patient with him.

"How about we find some land and some food, before we entertain any other ideas." He finally said. That was fair, there were priorities when it came to survival, you know? We couldn't save anybody if we were dead.

The crater that was my home got smaller and smaller, until I couldn't see it at all. And then my home was gone, and I had only Ray and the vast ocean. I could not see anything in any direction but the lapping of the ocean in dawn's gray light. The sun was going to come up soon, the dawn of the first day on my own. Maybe now that all we had was each other, Ray would get along with me better. Maybe, at some point, we would go back, and it would turn out it was all some elaborate prank my sisters were pulling on me. But no, they never went that far as to threaten my life, and they wouldn't attack a familiar, because they knew about the pain sharing deal. Well, they technically didn't do that, some guy I had never heard of with a Rattatta did. I thought I had met and helped just about every citizen in our kingdom, but I did not recognize most of the people in that court.

I had no idea when, but at some point, I fell asleep on Ray's back, because when I woke up, I was laying down on some sand, and my body felt like it was covered in a film of some sort or… something? It felt really weird, and I didn't know what it was. I felt really dirty. I was fine getting dirty for adventures, but I was always able to go home afterwards and wash off. Now, I could not go back, and my body felt absolutely disgusting.

Ray was nearby. He had to be. If he hadn't been attached to me by force by some metaphysical bond, I was sure he would have ditched me by now. He would have tried to find a way home by now. Instead, he was out a little ways in the ocean. He would look thoughtfully into the water, then strike his head into the water, scoop things up, spit out the sea water, and swallowed the rest of it. He repeated this process a few times, then made his way back.

"Ah, you're up." He said, disinterested, merely stating a fact.

"Yeah. You were doing some fishing?" I replied, sort of intoning my voice in such a way that he could tell I was really asking him if he brought me anything to eat.

"Yep, would have been better cooked, but survival is more important, right now." He put his hand to his body. "My stomach might not like this one." He completely ignored my implied question. I guessed I would ask more directly.

"Did you catch anything for me?" I asked, still somewhat delirious from the lack of food and water.

"Huh?" He asked, as if he hadn't expected that. "No. You can find your own food. I'm not helping you." Ray said, as if the fact that I merely suggested he do something like that offended him. I got what he was thinking. I wasn't going to help him with his life, so why should he help me with anything?

He didn't understand. I couldn't send him back, I just couldn't. I refused to send him back. He had a sour attitude, and I was almost certain he was just going to keep causing me trouble, but I still couldn't do it. I had worked too hard. I was not about to lose it all, my identity, my colors, my magic.

See, there was a way to send Ray back to his world… back to the woman he was going to marry, but it was quite difficult. The natural flow of things went from there to here. Our magic reached out to them, and they came to us. Trying to reverse that flow took quite a bit of effort, and all of your magic. All of it, no matter how powerful you were. It involved making a portal and severing the bond. Severing the bond, from what I knew, hurt physically, a lot. It was not enough to kill either of us, but it was very painful. That, I could handle, though. The portal part was the unacceptable thing. When I said it took all your magic, it meant all your magic, ever. Your magical prowess, the thing you needed to build in order to get your familiar in the first place, was your total magic potential. After using it, you needed some time to build up magic to do certain things again, but the potential never went down. If you had the potential to do something once, you always had the potential to do it… unless you sent your familiar back with a portal. When you did that, your magical potential dropped down to zero, and you could never build it back up again.

It was difficult to survive in this world without any magic whatsoever. So many things were built around it… If you had none… well, I would be a complete pariah, a hopeless outcast forever. Plus, it would be harder to survive. So… no, I couldn't send him back. I had no idea what would happen to me if I did. I got it, he had a life before he came here, but I wouldn't have a life after he left. I would have nothing, and if I was on the run like this… I would probably die fairly quickly. I didn't know if I could make him understand that. It didn't matter if he did or not. The fact remained, I was not going to send him back. That was the end of the discussion. And he hated me for it, but he couldn't leave, either. The bond kept us too close for him to ditch me in any significant way. Which left a question, why was there a film on my body. I sniffed myself. I smelled like the ocean.

"Why do I smell like the ocean?" I asked.

"You fell in when you fell asleep. I had to fish you out if I didn't want to be stuck in the ocean forever." He said.

"Ah, well, thank you very much." I said, giving him a little bow to show my gratitude. He was only helping me because I was connected to him, and by helping me, he was only helping himself, but I was still grateful. He didn't so much as make a noise acknowledging my thanks. That was alright, too.

Ok, we had found land and Ray had found things to eat. Now I needed to find something to eat. My stomach was making some seriously concerning noises. I took stock of what was around us.

We were on a sandy beach that stretched out for a while and then curved backward. We were either on an island or a peninsula. I hoped for the later. Or, I at least hoped that if we were on an island, it was a significantly big island. If it was just a little one, it probably wouldn't have enough resources for us to get started. Beyond the beach there was some greenery and a few palm trees on top of a slope, which dropped off after that so that one could not see what was beyond from there. I could hear some minor signs of life, if I listened hard enough, chittering, scurrying. If there was life here… that was a really good sign. That meant there was food here. That meant I could survive, and hopefully I would not have to try to fish. I didn't know how, and besides, raw fish sounded awful. Maybe Rayquaza were able to do it, but not me.

I walked up the beach towards the trees, and Ray floated behind me, silently. I should hope he didn't have a problem with this. If he wasn't going to help me find food, I would have to do it myself, but I couldn't do that without moving, and therefore, moving him. Unless what he actually wanted was to have me starve. I didn't know if he was that kind of guy, honestly. I liked to think he wasn't. But me starving, would that even affect him? I wasn't sure. There was a lot of documentation about the effects of various things on a human and their Pokemon, but starvation was not one I remembered hearing about. Starvation… wasn't something that really happened in our kingdom, and typically familiars did not have a spite against their human. But hey, I always knew I was a unique individual, so why in the world not?

I wondered if any of the grass or leaves were edible. I had not studied survival in anything besides caves, and I was always able to just go home, then, and I always had snacks. So I didn't really see the point in figuring out what could be eaten in nature. It didn't really matter to me, because I didn't need to eat in nature… before now.

One of the trees had bright fruit, it was kind of high up, though. That was no problem, all I needed to do was climb a bit. I gripped onto the tree, but the bark was smooth and rounded, not like the rocks I was used to climbing. I dug my fingernails and tried to gain some leverage to climb this thing. The bark was soft enough that my nails could sink in there, so that worked. It hurt my fingers, but I was able to climb in this was. Even though Ray could have just lifted me two feet or gotten it himself with much more ease. He wanted me to do it. I could almost feel him smirking up at me, amused by watching me struggle. When I finally made it to the top, I wrapped my legs around the trunk and pulled at the fruit. With a few good tugs, it came loose, and I fell down. Thankfully the grass was soft and I hadn't been that high up. That actually got a laugh from Ray, but I would be the last one laughing. I had the fruit. My stomach rumbled, and I shoved my face into that fruit, sunk my teeth in…

And immediately spit it out, it tasted absolutely disgusting.

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 **Hope you enjoyed, and have an awesome day!**


	19. Rouge

**Ray's POV**

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What, was the fruit of the wilds not good enough for the tastes of a princess? Although, I wasn't one to judge, I had as distinguished tastes as anyone. Even now, the raw seafood I ate clung to my tongue and churned in my stomach, but I wasn't about to let her see that.

"If a fruit tastes that bad, and it's brightly colored, it's probably poisonous." I said, quoting a tidbit of knowledge I learned from the library about the flora of this world. It was amazing, some of the things that people did with plants. It was medicine, it was food… clothing, weapons, you could use a plant for all sorts of things, if you knew what it was.

"Then maybe it's better I don't eat, huh? It sure would be awful if I starved, huh? I'm sure you would hate that." She said sarcastically. She thought I wanted her to die? I could understand why she thought that, with how I had been acting ever since I got here, but I really did not want her to die, if only for the reason that if she was dead, the way back home would be closed forever. I also just didn't really wish death on anyone, but she could think what she wanted. I wasn't going to correct her, she wouldn't change her opinion. She was very stubborn, as far as I could tell, and so was I, honestly. We should not have been put together.

"Hungry, princess?" A voice said. What was that? Who was that? I looked towards the voice. It sounded like a young adult male, and in fact, it was. There was a human with strange clothing, well, clothing different than the people around the palace wore, anyways. He was mounted on a Flygon, who was more or less the same size as me. The two of them had landed on the ground, and the human was holding out a small bag.

I was immediately suspicious. Who was this guy? He had a strange aura of danger, but he was smiling and seemed at ease. It was an unsettling contradiction. He was not dressed at all like any other human I had ever seen, and yet he knew she was the princess. I couldn't have her dying. Then again, there wasn't a whole lot I could do to protect her until she got stronger herself. But I guessed I still had speed on my side. We could run away, fly away. I was ready to go if things went south. I had eaten… badly, but I had eaten.

"And you are?" She said, putting on this air, this façade of fancy official royalty. No doubt this act was drilled into her for official ceremonies or hearings or just talking to citizens in general. King Mewtwo had given me the same sort of drill. It was some sort of defense mechanism. I could understand that.

"Strider." He said cooly. "And you are princess Emerald, pleasure to make your acquaintance." He said, tipping a cap he had on.

"The pleasure's mine." Emerald replied, again in that sort of forced royal façade. Then she narrowed her eyes. "How do you know me? You look nothing like anyone in my kingdom."

"The castle ground waterfall thing? Nah. But I'm definitely part of the kingdom, princess, and I'm here to take you home."

"How are you out here, and what's with your clothes?" Emerald asked. She was clearly baffled. This was… a very strange man, indeed. No matter how smoothly and soothingly he talked, he set off alarms in my head. He was trouble. Come to take her home. To do that, he would have to know that she had run away, and considering the fact that we had just run away yesterday, and the only people who would know we ran were the people who were chasing us. There hadn't been enough time for anyone else to find out. This guy had to be with them, then.

"Does any of that really matter? I know y'all are powerless. You can come with me, all nice and pretty-like, or you can make this hard for yourself." He narrowed his eyes, looking over Emerald as one might look at a plaything. What was he planning to do, exactly?

"You're with that real dark court, in the catacombs." I said.

"Uh, nah, I ain't one of them. They're giving a reward for you, though. Usually I'd put on some sorta routine to avoid having a big fight, but, ya know, you aren't much of a fight, little lady. Gonna be even with you, you aren't really worth the effort it would take to deceive ya. So, which way will it be? Easy or hard?" Strider said. If she was taken back she would likely be killed, and then I would never get back to my world, to my life. We stared at each other, the tension in the air very high… and then it broke.

"I'm kiddin ya, I'm kiddin ya. I ain't gonna turn you in, girly." He broke into laughter, and so did his Flygon. They must have found the looks on our faces from having been tricked particularly amusing, because they couldn't stop laughing for a little while. I wasn't entirely sure it was a trick, though. My trust for him immediately shot even further down. Emerald, I wasn't sure what she was thinking, but she laughed to, perhaps from the sudden breaking of so much nervous tension. Who could know? I hoped she didn't suddenly trust him. After a minute or so of laughter, Strider sobered enough to speak.

"The rest ain't a trick, though. They really are lookin for ya, and there's a bounty on your head." Strider reached into a pocket and produced a piece of crumpled paper. He unfolded it, revealing an image of Emerald and myself, along with the word "REWARD" and a number with quite a few zeros. . Emerald grabbed it from out of his hands and stared at it hard, in utter disbelief. Then she suddenly threw it on the ground.

"No, screw this! You've got to be kidding me?!" She stomped on the wanted poster, too. The shock must have broken her royal presenting demeanor. Now she was acting more like herself. That meant her defense was down, a bit, but mine would not be. Who was to say this was not the lie. It was perfect, he would gain her trust and lead her to an ambush or attack her himself in a moment of weakness. He would deliver her over to her clearly cult family and their dark king master, or whatever, and Mr. weird clothes over here would pocket the cash, leaving me stranded here forever. And that was only the best case scenario, worst would be that they dragged me into this with her and tried to kill me too. Well, it would make sense if they did, to be honest. I also saw them… and I helped Emerald escape. Well, maybe I could strike some kind of deal to at least save myself.

"Nope. Not kidding you. There are hundreds of these all over the kingdom, and probably even beyond. Word spreads quick when the king wants something done, you know?" He said, picking up the wanted poster off the ground and lightly dusting it off. "You two should be glad you found me before anyone else.

"Excuse me, do you, for some reason, think we trust you just because you said you aren't actually going to capture me? Because I don't." Well, at least Emerald wasn't entirely stupid about these things, even if she had been isolated in her castle most of her life.

"Girly, please. If I so much as had one ounce of respect for the king, you would be gone. Just cause I ain't gonna kidnap you or kill you, doesn't mean I'm a good person. I definitely ain't no upstanding citizen. I'm probably one of the only people who would let you go free. Any good citizen is gonna try to take you down or at least turn you in." Strider pocketed the wanted poster, apparently satisfied that it was now clean.

"You look like the type of guy who likes adventure and danger, and to stick it to authority. Want to come with us?" Emerald asked. That was… a change of gears. First she wanted nothing to do with him, no she was inviting him along. Well, I supposed it made sense. E was strong, or at least looked strong, and she was weak, and if he was the only person not against her, she probably wanted at least some allies.

"Yeah, but being around you would be bad luck for me, girly. You're gonna have armies after you, from the looks of it. They really have something against you. If they found me with you, it's just be the cherry on top. I'm not putting myself in a situation like that without proper… compensation."

"You wanna be paid? Fine, I'm a princess. I can get money."

"How? You're estranged from home and nothing on you looks particularly valuable." He replied.

"I'll find a way." Emerald said, her voice determined and resolute. Something about her voice must have reached him, because his face changed. Instead of looking all condescendingly, he looked more solemn, like he had more respect. But this guy, according to his own words, I thought, that we could not possibly pay him and so were out of luck, not worth his time except to be a quick laugh, a play thing.

"Alright, little girly. I'll take you up on that." His Flygon, whose name we did not know, gave him a confused look and nudged him. He looked back and connected with the Flygon, looking in his eyes. Apparently, they had quite the strong bond, if they were able to communicate like that with only a glance. I had no doubts a Pokemon and a human's bond could run that deep, I just didn't care to stick around long enough for me to feel that connected to Emerald. However, I would have loved to be that connected with Mel. It was only a brief moment that their eyes met, but they seemed to communicate much, because now the Flygon stopped fidgeting. Did they really believe they would get the money, or were they coming along purely for entertainment value, and didn't care as much about the danger and likeliness of being caught as he originally conveyed.

"Good, then I've hired you as my bodyguard." Emerald said.

"Yep. So where to, my lady?" Strider asked. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to me, and neither was the Flygon. I could honestly do just about anything right now, and nobody would even pay attention. For some odd reason, I felt a pang of jealousy. I didn't care about attention though, so why? Maybe this… this situation reminded me of something in the back of my mind. I couldn't articulate it.

"Well, for starters, somewhere with food would be nice." Emerald said. As she did, my mind was pulled back into the realm of reality, dragged back by my stomach, which growled hungrily. I had the seafood, sure, so I was not as hungry as she was, and her stomach growled louder as if to prove exactly that. The mouthful of small sea creatures and plants were not enough to sustain me, though. If he had food, I would more than happily take it… as long as he ate it first.

Perhaps I was a bit paranoid. Consider it a side effect of being groomed as the heir to a throne. I was trained in many skills and graces, yes, but also in survival skills from assassination attempts. There would always be those who might try to get rid of the king for whatever reasons. I had to be ready… and so now, all I could think of was how many ways this guy could trap and kill Emerald and myself. The thought pattern was a bit suffocating, but it made things safer. I didn't know how the world really looked to her, but something told me the world was actually a way more dangerous place than it was seen through the eyes of this child, who had been isolated in her royalty for years, never really knowing the plight of the citizen. Never really having had to watch her back.

"Ah yes, food, I nearly forgot." He said, and with a slick smile, he pulled out a small burlap sack he had been hiding on his person.

"You have some, first." I said, before things went any further. Strider frowned for a moment, as if he wasn't sure exactly why I was saying that. He was putting on an ignorant air, so he didn't give away immediately to Emerald that I had caught him red handed. Then the realization of what I meant seemed to dawn on him, and he nodded and smiled again.

"Sure, mister. I'd love to have a little, myself, fight off the hunger, a bit." He took a big ol' handful of what turned out to be dried fruits and nuts out of the bag, then stuffed them in his mouth, making a big show of it that he was, in fact, chewing and swallowing the food, and it was not poisonous. I knew that was for my sake. Well, I waited a moment, and still the food did nothing to him. As the seconds ticked on, the likelihood of the food being a trap became less and less. To be honest… I was surprised. Unless he had some sort of way around this failsafe, he really wasn't trying to take advantage of a rogue princess with a large bounty on her head. Well, I guessed if anyone were to help a rouge, it would be another rouge.

"Satisfied?" Strider asked, tilting his head slightly. I nodded. I was indeed satisfied. I still wasn't one hundred percent sure about this, but I would never be one hundred percent sure of this. However, we did both have a hundred percent chance of dying if we suddenly just decided not to eat.

"For now." I said, conceding my position on this specific instance, but not backing down on the overall situation.

"Good." Strider smiled, and put down the bag. "Take what you want. There's a town further inland where we can restock, rest up, wash up." His eyes lingered on the two of us for a moment, before he added. "The two of you are going to need a disguise if you want to step anywhere near civilization without getting caught. So, you should start working on that." Strider said, then took another handful of nuts and fruits from the back and munched. How exactly were we supposed to disguise ourselves? Sure, she could change her appearance and not many people would know who she was, but if I wanted to fit in, I would have to disguise not just my identity, but my entire species, since my kind were exceedingly rare here. If they saw a Rayquaza, they would likely know it was us. And something told me this guy wasn't about to help us come up with disguises, as he was now lounging on the beach, leaning up against his Flygon.

"Come talk to me when you're ready to go." And with that, he tipped his cap over his face and fell asleep.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	20. The World Outside the Walls

**Emerald's POV**

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A disguise? How was I supposed to get a disguise? I was on a beach. What was I gonna do, smear sand in my face and adorn myself with tiny sea creatures? I was about to ask Strider, but I heard him snoring. I nudged him, and he woke up with a start.

"Ready to go?" He asked, looking me up and down. "It's your funeral."

"Where am I supposed to get a disguise?" I demanded.

"Don't know, don't care." Strider said, and closed his eyes once more.

"But there's NOTHING AROUND!" I shook him. The guy was asking a weird impossible task of me. Turns out that was a mistake, because he swiped at me, got me pretty good in the stomach, and I fell back. This guy packed a punch.

"Magic, princess, use magic. You can't be that incompetent. You got this guy to come to you." Strider said, a mocking bite to his tone, he gestured over to Ray. I sighed internally. Yes, I had raw magic potential, now, but had no idea how to shape it into anything useful.

"I didn't learn how to do that." I muttered under my breath. Seems Strider heard me, because his eyes narrowed, and then he sighed.

"Can't really survive well in this world without knowing how to do some magic. Unless you're real good at fighting and work-arounds. How about that, princess? Did you learn how to do that?" He looked at me like he knew the answer I was going to give, and of course, he did know the answer. I had learned nothing like that, either. There was a reason we were supposed to stay within the walls.

"No…" I trailed off.

"I know how, but I'm severely lacking power at the moment." Ray added, with a sharp glance towards me. It was my fault he couldn't really fight or do much of anything anymore. I had to find a way to grow my magic, but without Lilly.

"Well, then, time to find you a teacher, and it's going to have to be in a much seedier part of the world if you can't disguise yourselves. I require a modest finder's fee, of course." Strider said, picking himself back up off the ground.

"Of course." I frowned. This was a very money driven sort of guy. What did he need so much money for, it seemed like he had just about everything he and his Flygon could possibly need. At least, he acted like it. He acted like he didn't need the money, he just wanted it. If I wasn't able to get home, I wasn't sure how I would get the cash, I wasn't sure how I would survive long without some kind of guide or protector, though. Someone who knew about the outside world, who knew how things worked here and could help me along while I learned about it. I couldn't afford to be cheap about this. If it was going to take money to make this happen, then I would find a way.

"Well, then, get on your Rayquaza and follow me." Strider said, a mischievous smile seemingly permanently attached to his face. I looked at Ray for confirmation, he was staring me down. Right, just because he flew me somewhere to save his own skin, didn't mean he would be willing to let me ride on his back whenever I wanted.

"Actually, if I could ride with you, that would probably be best, since you're my bodyguard and all. Can't be a good bodyguard without a body, you know?" I smiled sheepishly and Strider raised an eyebrow, but then patted his Flygon on the neck.

"What do you say, buddy, can you handle one more?" Strider asked, the Flygon made a sort of grunt. "He says sure. Hop on. It's a little strange your Rayquaza over there won't let you ride him, though."

"Who I have on my back is my business." Ray interjected.

"Ah." Was Strider's only reply, as he looked back and forth between us, briefly. "I see." What in the world was that supposed to mean, huh? Was he making some sort of judgement about our relationship? Judging us, perhaps, for not having a strong enough bond? Well screw that, and screw him for judging. He didn't know the story. Although, if we were to be traveling together, it might have helped if we knew each other's stories. I wasn't sure he was the type to give up his own story so easily, though.

I somewhat awkwardly climbed onto Flygon. He was beautiful, a nice soft, close cropped coat. He had thick, strong muscles that easily held up my weight. There was room for me, but I had to press up near Strider to fit. I didn't really like being this up close to him. I didn't exactly trust him, but if Ray wasn't going to let me ride on his back, this was about the only viable option.

"Ready?" Strider asked me.

"Ready." I said.

"Ready?" He asked his Flygon. It nodded in response. He patted the Flygon's neck again and we took off, speeded into the sky. I looked back as we rocketed upward. The island we were on was rather large, and there was actually what looked like some civilization further inland. So he hadn't been lying about that, at least. I looked ahead, into the wild blue yonder. The clouds were coming at me at an alarming rate. I braced myself, ready to finally take my place in the sky among the clouds, on the back of a Flygon, a very handsome Flygon, and a very handsome guy sitting in front of me. I didn't like his attitude, but I could not deny he was a good looking guy.

I had never had anyone court me at home, and I had never courted anyone else. Nobody wanted to have any sort of romantic relations with me. I was the dud, I was the screw up. Why would anyone want to associate in that way with me? Now that I had my colors, had my legend, had a name and an identity, now I probably could go after romance, if I wanted to. Well, I couldn't right now, being on the run and everything. Not unless I wanted to lower my standards to this guy. I had not seen any other humans so far. I had only been outside for a short while, though. There would be time. Now, we were going to find a teacher.

We broke through the clouds it felt cold and refreshing, it felt free. I felt free, I was being chased, there was a wanted sign for me and a bounty on my head, but I was free. I was seeing the ocean, I was taking to the skies. Well, now I couldn't see the ocean anymore. We had gone through the cloud layer, so now all I could see below was a carpet of fluffy whiteness. I looked over the side of the Flygon, whose name I still did not know. I must have leaned too far, because suddenly I was watching Flygon get further and further away. It took me a second to realize that was happening because I was free falling off Flygon and plummeting towards the sea. If I hadn't been screaming, I would have been sighing. I was so done with my own nonsense. I was so sick of messing up. I promised I wasn't doing it on purpose. I guessed I just… wasn't always as aware of my surroundings as I should have been. More than just my lack of magic landed me my nickname, and now I was embarrassing myself in front of this guy and my dream Pokemon… With Ray, it was too late. He already knew what I was like. I had been trying to make a better first impression this time, but now that was ruined.

I fell back through the cloud layer, and this time I could see the space where my body had fallen through the cloud. And then I landed on something. I couldn't tell what it was, at first, but I felt something solid, so I held on for dear life.

"Stop choking me!" Ray said and I heard some gagging noises. I loosened my grip a little, sensing that I would not fall. I reoriented myself and realized Ray had caught me. Ray… caught me? It must have been another thing where he needed me to be ok. For a moment I thought he might have actually wanted to save me, but then I remembered the tether. Ray caught me so he himself would not plummet into the ocean. Whatever the reason, I was willing to take it if it meant I didn't have to drown.

"You really have to learn not to fall like that, I'm not always going to catch you. Eventually this tether won't be so tight, and when that happens."

"You'll still save me. You need me alive." He looked back at me, death in his eyes, and I looked cooly back, calling his bluff. I wanted to get along with him, but even if he didn't want to, I still had the upper hand. I had something he needed, a way back. As long as he thought I could send him back, and that, in fact, I was the only thing that could send him back, I would be safe. He might rough me up, or treat me bad, but he would make sure I was alive at the end of the day. In the background, I could hear Strider chuckling. At least, I was pretty sure that's what I was hearing. Wind rushed through my ears so loudly that it was a little difficult to hear anything else, but I managed.

We rose, once again, above the clouds. This time I was on Ray. It was strange, he had a much different sort of flying style, He more… snaked his way through the sky, making twists and turns, probably catching the wind on the various perpendicular scales on his body which probably worked something like sails upon the water. We had little boats in the kingdom to get across the lake, for those not adept at swimming, or those who simply didn't feel like swimming. There were also some gifted with the powers of wind that made little sails with sticks and cloth. For those whose magic was not strong enough that they could get the wind to carry them on their own, they would create these gliders and guide the wind into them. That way they could still fly. I often would look out the window at all those with gliders in jealousy, out and flying, free and alive, while I was still locked in the library, trying desperately to learn some magic so I could go out and be like them.

If only those kids could see me now, flying high and free over the endless sea. If only the other kids with deficient magic could see me, and come with me. Ray probably wouldn't be fond of a bunch of kids tagging along, he didn't seem like the type to enjoy that sort of thing. I wouldn't wish them this fate, either, running away from their own family…but if only they could see what I saw right now. If only I could lead them on this most fantastic adventure…

* * *

 **Hope y'all have a good day!**


	21. Island Hopping

**Ray's POV**

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I really didn't like her on my back. She was heavy and obnoxious and made flying an unnecessarily burdensome chore. I guessed that really could describe this entire affair, unnecessarily burdensome. She was not growing on me the longer we spent together. She would not be growing on me. Her quirks, her awkward clumsiness was not an asset to her, was not endearing, was not cute. It was irritating and dangerous. I meant, really, she fell and dragged me down with her, and why? Because she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, because she was so wrapped up in her own little world, she forgot to pay attention to anything around her. She was not a good adventurer, or an idealistic dreamer, she was a hazard.

But she was a hazard I was stuck with, at least until I could find a way to get unstuck. And, make no mistake, I was looking for any opportunity to get unstuck. I wanted back into my world more than ever, now. For one thing, if I was in my world, I wouldn't have to be on the run from some weird shadow court that wanted to kill me for finding out their secret, or whatever… even though it seemed that this Strider fellow, and many other people in this outside world probably… already knew about them. Strider had talked about them so casually, as if they were just a part of his life. At least my government back home wasn't messed up like that, because I was going to be the government, and my father in law to be was the current government. Mel's father was a nice, wise man, who took me under his wing like a son. I used "wing" metaphorically, because he had no wings. Maybe that was obvious. Oh well, occasionally my thoughts wandered. That was something I would have to work on.

I flew on, following the Flygon's lead. He had been strangely silent this whole time, although it didn't seem to matter that he was silent, it seemed he and Strider could communicate just the same, without words. The two seemed very close, and like they understood each other. He flew much slower than I knew someone with his kind of build could go. It was probably a courtesy to the human riding on him. Go too fast, and they would be absolutely overwhelmed. That was something I learned when I was training to be a chosen one, a guardian for a princess, back when I was actually looking forward to going to this world and being one of the world's elite. Back then, I had a little regret over never knowing what might have been with Meliae, but mostly I was just excited for the status being a chosen one granted me. I would live with royalty, and live a charmed life. Back then, I wasn't incredibly eager to let anyone ride on my back, either. I had a reason. It was hard to carry anything along my body because of the way I flew, twisting and turning through the sky to generate and then catch the wind. Having someone there made it harder to do this. Mel's method of flying on me had been ideal. I could keep my head still while flying, but I couldn't keep much else still without problems. I was almost certain Emerald wouldn't care though. She would insist it was just something I needed to work on or something

Maybe I was assuming too many things about the princess. She had worked very hard to summon me, she had spent her whole life trying to accomplish this. Getting a Pokemon that didn't even want to be there must have been pretty frustrating. It was no wonder, knowing what she had been through, knowing what having summoned someone meant to her, it was no wonder that she didn't want to send me back, no matter what. I had a life before, but I didn't work nearly as hard to get it. In fact, I didn't work at all to get it. My life back home all sort of fell into my lap, it was not so for her.

So… I had an idea. Maybe I could go out and find her a different familiar, get her set up with someone who would get along with her better, who would love to go on the types of adventures she was so fond of. If I could find a Pokemon like that, that could help her grow and secure her place in society… then, maybe, she would be willing to cut the bond with me and form a bond with this new person. Not maybe, I was sure she would. She wasn't exactly enjoying my presence, either. If there was a better alternative that still got her what she wanted, a life, she would take it. Then I could go and have my life, and let some other guy deal with Emerald. There had to be a Pokemon out there that would be perfect for her this was a big world, there had to be someone. We just had to go out and find them. I resolved to tell Emerald about my idea tonight, when we had a chance to settle down a bit.

Where exactly were Flygon and Strider taking us? I had no idea. I had no frame of reference for this word except the one glance I had from the stratosphere when I came here for the first time. I knew the place where Emerald had come from, Waterfall Kingdom, was surrounded by a lot of ocean, with a few islands around, scattered. We would probably have to stop at one of the islands, at the speed we were going. Mainland was too far away. We wouldn't be able to sleep in comfort tonight, though. We could not go into civilized places until her majesty learned a simple trick like disguising us. Well, actually, I didn't know if it was simple or not. I had never really been taught too much about how a human's magic worked, only that we were linked to that force. I had no frame of reference for how hard making a disguise would be, but it didn't seem like it would be all that complicated. All you had to do was bend light a little to cause a distortion in vision, right? Something like that. I didn't know.

We flew for a long while, and not many words were exchanged. Actually I thought Strider might have fallen asleep. His legs were hooked around Flygon in an interesting way and he had dark glasses over his eyes. I knew Emerald was not asleep, because if she was she would have fallen again by now. Maybe Strider could teach Emerald something about not falling.

I would have been lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind to betray him while he was asleep. The thing was that kid was smart. He had given away no information. We still actually needed him for any of the services he talked about, he had the information, the power, and the leverage. And so he could sleep peacefully in the sky, fearing no sort of betrayal. All the while, he could betray us at any moment. Emerald said she was going to pay him for his services, but if, at any time, he no longer felt that was important, he could turn on us in the blink of an eye. So Emerald had to watch out for him. I was fairly sure she could come to this conclusion on her own, if she had not already.

Eventually, Flygon started to descend. It was a very slight descent, so it was hard to notice at first, but he was definitely getting closer to the clouds. Then he dipped under them, and I followed. The sun was setting in the western sky, and we were flying directly away from it, which meant we were heading east. There was a small island nearby and ocean for miles and miles in every direction. I guessed that was our destination. Was the teacher there, was the seedy place there? But it looked pretty much deserted. There was a forest, or jungle, or whatever you would call it on the island, so we could probably rustle up some proper food and shelter. That was probably exactly what this stop was. Food, water, and sleep. The sun was setting, and it would be hard to navigate in the dark. Besides, we couldn't keep on flying forever. There were muscles you had to use to defy the force of gravity, and no matter how efficient you were at using them, they eventually tired out. We dipped lower and lower, dropping out of the sky and eventually landing safely, softly on the island.

Emerald hopped off my back, thank goodness. She was heavy. She wasn't that heavy, but speaking in relative terms, speaking in terms of what I was used to carrying… she was so heavy. Strider hopped off Flygon as well. As soon as he did, Flygon wrapped his wings around himself, curled up, and went to sleep. I wanted to do the same, but I didn't exactly trust Emerald not to mess something up for us. Or, I should be more specific, mess something else up for us. She had already screwed so much up.

"Alright, alright, ladies and gents." Strider said, stretching out and nodding to the rest of us. He had a pack on his back which he took off and dropped on the ground with a thud. "We are stopping here for the night. You build a fire. I'll rustle up some grub." Strider said. He stretched out a little more, probably stiff from sitting in the same position while flying for hours. I noticed Emerald doing the same. Meanwhile, I settled down to rest. Emerald had already had some rest today, just sitting on my back while I did all the work. She could make the fire. She didn't need to go very far to make a fire, we were amongst the trees right now, not just on the beach. I wasn't moving anywhere. However, Strider said he was going to go search for food, and yet, there was the Flygon, curled up and fast asleep. Strider would definitely have to get rather far from his Flygon to find some food. We were at the edge of the trees. I could see wood that could be used for a fire, but I couldn't see anything edible. My point was this, Strider would have to go far away, and did not try to wake Flygon or anything. That meant that either their tether was a lot weaker than mine and Emerald's, or it did not exist at all. Either way, there was probably something we could learn about the tether from them. I did not want to have to be this close to her at all times forever. I liked privacy, a life with no privacy at any point sounded awful. Plus, it would be convenient to not get dragged around every which place when Emerald had someplace she wanted to go.

"Got it. Meet you back here." Emerald said, and she was off, scurrying up and around trees to try and find wood dry enough to start and maintain a fire. Thankfully, it didn't seem to have rained recently, so it shouldn't have been too hard. I coiled up and tucked my head at the center of the coil, exhausted from flying for hours upon hours. I closed my eyes.

Strider… what a strange one? Just as strange as Emerald, probably, but in a different way. Didn't he say something about him being a horrible criminal? He had been pretty nice so far, a little snarky and condescending, sure, but he didn't seem like a criminal to me. Maybe I just hadn't seen him in action, yet. Maybe he was toning it down in front of us. Maybe he had been lying about that, to make himself seem cool. Who knew and who cared? I could only deal with what I was getting at any given moment. He didn't have my trust, but he didn't have my hatred, either. He walked into the trees, unafraid for himself or his Flygon, seeming to have very little concern. Concern that he probably should have had. Although, I guessed he had that much confidence in himself and his Flygon. They could both defend themselves just fine. I did not think I would trust Emerald in a similar way. She had given me very little reason to.

"So… you have been awfully quiet, what do you-" I started to ask the Flygon, but I was cut off by loud snoring. It was not as obnoxious as Emerald's snoring, but it was enough to tell me that my words were not going to be heard. I was very tired as well, very tired, both physically and emotionally. Plus, the sun on my back all day. I was used to staying indoors and lot of the day, out of the sun. Actually, that was right, I had been in the sun all day. The sun was setting, but it was still high enough in the sky to make itself known. I wanted shade, so I got up and moved closer to Emerald, under some branches. I would be anchoring her there, but frankly, I did not care. I hoped she would not misinterpret me coming closer as some sort of sublimated sign of affection. And, with these thoughts flitting through my head, I drifted off.

I woke up to a kick in the gut. What in the world?! I looked wildly around to try and figure out what could be doing this, who could have gone and kicked me, or was it something else? Was the sea food making me that violently sick? I had been sick to my stomach, before, but it never really felt like I was being kicked? I uncoiled and looked around. It was Strider, Strider had kicked me. I narrowed my eyes and was about to threaten him, when he shushed me and started to talk.

"You can argue with me later, for now, you gotta get Emerald, and we gotta go. Or, if you really want, Flygon and I can take her and hope she doesn't fall again for some stupid reason." He was whispering I assumed to not wake her. I was very confused, what was going on? I whispered too, I wasn't sure what was going on, but it felt like the right thing to do.

"Why not get her up, then. And what's going on?" I asked. Strider frowned in the pale moonlight.

"Somethin tells me she'd make too much of a ruckus and get herself and all of us killed. We've been found, I don't know how, and we gotta go like right now if we're going to stay ahead of them."

"What are you talking about, we've been found? I asked. I looked around, I didn't see anything threatening. He shoved a hand up against my face in an attempt to shush me.

"Don't talk, don't think, the darkness is coming. We have to go. Now." Strider said, his cool demeanor was entirely gone, and he looked and sounded like a scared little kid who had a nightmare and was coming to his parent to get them to make it go away. His urgency shut me up more than his actions ever could. The quiver in his voice said there was no room for questioning, and that something horrible was going to happen if we did not go.

It occurred to me that I did not get to actually have a meal. I fell asleep, and now this. I was very hungry, and very tired, but there was no time, now. My scales nearly itched in anticipation. There was something. I wasn't sure what it was but there was something out there. I could feel it, now that I was a little more awake. It was oppressive, it demanded to be fled from or submitted to, there was no fighting back, there was no standing your ground. It was such a strange feeling. There was something supernatural in the air.

"Put her on with you." I whispered. "She's asleep. If she's asleep on me, she will fall." I said.

"Alright, stay close." Strider said. If it weren't for the situation, I would have been sure that was another snarky sarcastic comment, because of course I had to stay close, I was held close to her, I didn't have a choice but to stay close. Instead, I just nodded. Strider lifted Emerald's sleeping body and leaned it against his body on top of Flygon. The three of them took off, and I went after them.

There was something in the air, something sinister, something that wanted to kill us slowly and painfully. How did I know this? I did not, it was a feeling, it was in my instincts. Something was very very wrong and fast approaching, even though we were flying fast, it was catching up, closer and closer. What in the world was this? What in the world was happening? Smoke, I thought I saw, out of the corner of my eye, and bright eyes, staring deep into me, clawing at me. What was this, what was this, what wa-?

* * *

 **oooo spoopy, have a good day, y'all**


	22. Dangerous Refuge

**Emerald's POV**

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I woke up somewhere completely different from where I fell asleep. This was the second time this had happened in a very short amount of time, and I did not like it. Now I was in a brown tent with sunlight streaming through. This was… different. A tent meant people, though, didn't it? Were we among people now? Had I slept so late Strider and Ray decided it was time to go without me? They would get a stern talking to from me. They couldn't just move my sleeping body wherever they wanted to. It wasn't ok. It was creepy, at best. At worst, it was a violation of privacy and there was some sort of law against it… not that having any sort of law would help me now that we were fugitives in my own kingdom.

There was bedding in here, bunk two sets of double bunk beds, four mattresses in total. Was this for the four of us? But these were not big enough to handle a Rayquaza or Flygon. They were even a little too small for me. Where were we, and what was this. Nobody else was in the tent, and nothing else was really in here either. The flaps of the tent were closed. Ray had to be nearby, at least, even if nobody else was. I got up, out of the bunk bed, off of the mattress, and went through the tent flaps. I yawned and stretched, but I could not shake this heavy tired feeling in my chest. What was this feeling, I wondered.

Oh there was Ray, he was literally right outside the tent. Why was he outside, why not just go inside the tent? He sat there his demeanor frozen like a statue. Was he, uh, was he ok? I put a hand to his skin. He was warm, he was still alive. There was no doubt about that, so why was he so frozen, so still. His eyes stare blankly ahead. I was a little worried. This could not be a normal thing. I hadn't known him for a long time, but there was no way this was a normal thing. The real questions, however, were, was this something normal for him, and did I need to be worried.

He wasn't hurt, I knew that much. If he had been hurt, I would be hurting right now, a deep aching that affected my soul. I hadn't felt it yet, but I would know it when I felt it, and he was not in any physical pain. He looked to be in some sort of psychological pain, though. Or, was he just tired? From flying at night? It was pretty early in the morning. Yeah, they would have had to be flying when the sun was still down, when it was still dark out. I thought the whole point of making camp for the night was to not fly through the night. No, it was more than exhaustion, though. I could see it in his eyes. Something was very wrong, and I was going to find out what it was. I couldn't just let my Pokemon suffer, even if he didn't like me very much. If there was something I could do to help, I would do it.

"He'll be alright." Strider said, putting a hand on my shoulder out of nowhere. I flinched. He came out of nowhere, and it was not ok that he did that.

"What happened?" I asked, the worry could not help but creep into my voice. Just looking at him, he was not himself. I could tell, something deep inside told me, or maybe it was just common sense, who knew?

"He asked me not to say." Strider said. He seemed a lot less… he had a lot less bravado than before. Whatever happened last night, whatever made Ray like this, it had affected him too. I felt a little guilty that I sort of… liked him better this way? He seemed a lot more humble. Something had humbled him, humbled them both, perhaps? Something they tried to fight but had to run away from instead.

"Anyways, we're here." Strider said, and gestured outwards. For the first time, I looked beyond Ray to my surroundings. There wasn't just this tent, there was a whole encampment of tents like a community of people living in tents. If that was the case, it was really rather strange. I had seen nothing like it before. Then again, I hadn't seen a whole lot of anything before. Things looked very different out here the whole aesthetic was different. There were synthetic materials, everywhere, and it seemed people came to rely way more on man made things than what nature provided. We weren't in caves, but we were in a synthetic substitute for a cave… outside a synthetic substitute for a cave. The tents went on for a long while, and then opened up into a field of grass and small yellow flowers. It felt… at least somewhat safe here. The multitude of tents, the promise of some sort of community assured me.

But… what kind of community was I going to be dealing with? Strider said it was one that was super seedy, a community of outlaws. A lot of them were probably also on the run from the law for much worse and unforgivable things than I did. This was an isle of monsters, if Strider was to be believed, and he was one of them. Is that what happened? They ran into a monster? But these guys knew Strider, I was pretty sure he had said at one point. That was why we were going to be safe here, at least for a little while.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Den of thieves, isle of the damned. There's a lot of names for this place. There's a lot of criminals. You'll be alright for now, but be careful with these guys. They have the same wanted poster I do. And some of them are a lot less eager to make a deal, you know. You're sort of stuck here until your guy here snaps out of it. He had a rough night. Stay with him, alright? I'll see it I can bring the teacher here."

And with that, he walked off, a strange, stilted walk that told me he wasn't all there. Neither was Ray. I turned my attention back to him. He was hurting. Something awful had happened. It almost looked as if he were missing some of his color, but that was a trick of the light. That sort of thing did not happen to a Pokemon.

I rubbed his head, to see if he was respond to my touch. Nothing. I knew he was aware and awake. I could tell. So why wasn't he responding? Was he so inside himself, was something going on inside his mind to keep him from me? I wished I had a way to go in there and help him out, but I did not know how to do that. Hopefully, this teacher Strider was talking about could actually help me with my magic. Would this teacher do any better than Lilly? Would they have any patience with me, or just give up after a few tries, like so many of my other teachers? And what about the fact that they were on this island in the first place? That meant my teacher would be some kind of criminal! That was not ok… that was not ok… but, what else was I going to do now? There wasn't a whole lot I could do to change the situation. I rubbed Ray's head until I felt it relax a bit, then moved on to other parts of his body, arms and back, until he was at least somewhat more relaxed.

He made a small grunting noise. He was back with the living, good. He still didn't look like he wanted to talk, though. That was alright with me. I could wait. Maybe, if he saw that I cared about him, which I did, he would stay. He wouldn't try to make me send him back… I gently rubbed his head some more until he fully woke up. Everything would be ok, I would make sure of it.

"What happened?" I asked. In lieu of a response, Ray fell asleep. At least he had a little more peace than he had a few minutes ago. Even if he didn't admit it or didn't look any better, I was helping him. Something happened while I was asleep, and it had to do with this heavy feeling in my chest, and it had shaken Ray and Strider up pretty bad. Now that Ray was asleep, I was kind of stuck where I was. I couldn't exactly drag him off. I wondered what Strider was up to… no, I knew what he was up to, he was trying to get my new teacher to come here.

What kind of teacher would it be? Some rugged guy trying to look cool, like Strider, but in his thirties or forties or fifties… or something? I was basically just imagining an older Strider. Or maybe… maybe it wasn't even a human? It seemed counterintuitive for a Pokemon to teach a human to do magic, considering a Pokemon should not have known how to do a human's magic. They were affected by it, and its strength, but they could not do it. Still, who could say? Some rather strange things were happening, so who was to say a Pokemon could not teach me?

Ray started cringing in his sleep. I pet him some more until he relaxed again. Whatever it was that was bothering him, it had followed him into his dreams. I felt bad for him. I felt like… something inside me knew what was going on, but it wasn't telling my conscious mind. Did I even want to know what was going on? Something inside told me… no, I did not want to know. But at the same time, I felt that I needed to find out. This was quite the conundrum, huh?

I wanted Ray to be comfortable, and I wanted the two of us to get along. I was keeping him from his wife… he was a chosen one. No Pokemon had ever come to this world before and been so crabby about it. They seemed to have nothing big they were missing when they came over here. Or maybe they were just acting like they didn't and they all had lovers and family we were taking them away from. But then why would they agree to do this? Why was this the first anyone was hearing about it? Or did other people hear about it… and just not care? I guess I had no way of knowing, unless, of course, I just asked Ray about it. Oh, and told him about my plan to help him feel more at home here, to help him start his new life here.

The skies were a bright blue, the clouds few and puffy. It was pretty humid out, so we were near the ocean? But there was also an open field. There were a bunch of tents around in grid or clump formation, I guessed based on how organized the individuals here were. This was the den of thieves, the isle of the damned. That was what Strider said, but there was nobody around, not a soul in this bright daylight. Something about that seemed off to me. Well, yeah, it was obviously not normal for nobody to be around a living quarters, unless they only used these tents for sleeping. I wondered, if they were thieves, did they steal from each other while they were out, or was there some sort of code they adhered to so they could live together without living in constant paranoia… or maybe they just always took their things with them, or didn't really have a lot of valuables in the first place.

Seriously, not a single person to be found here in broad day's light. Another option was that they were just all inside, unable or unwilling to get out and enjoy the sun. I was getting a little sweaty, actually. It was a sensation I was used to from being very active, but I wasn't being active now, I was just standing. My home, my kingdom, was very much a tropical place, but the heat was off-set by the shade of the high white cliffs. Here…we were out in the open, a totally open field, save for the multitude of tents. I had to admit it frightened me a little. I knew I wished to be out in the open, to be free, but now that I was here, no walls to contain me… it was a little bit unnerving. It was something I would get used to, though. I had no doubts about that.

Get used to… used to not being home, used to being out in the open, and on the run? I was on the run from my own family. It was so… surreal. A part of me could not connect the two, that dark court. Everyone in the robes, taking orders from some guy in a darker cloak who would not show his face. His voice stayed with me, though. My father… sure I didn't get to see him a lot, but it was ok because he was out being a good king. But no, he wasn't even the king, apparently. He took his orders from some malevolent force, some dubious figure, and for what? Something about magical power? Stronger magical power? That was what they had tried to sell me on, but perhaps that was only because magical power was something that I in particular was lacking. Maybe it was something different for everybody?

Seriously, how did all my sisters join something like that, that was so obviously toxic and suspicious? Why was I only hearing about this just now? Especially Crystal, out of everyone else, I was most surprised that Crystal was a part of this. She seemed too nice for something like that. The rest… I could believe it for some more than others. Silver surprised me quite a bit, too. She was quiet, but she had spent so many long trying to control her powers, just to use them for evil? And Sapphire… she was all chill and philosophical when she wasn't fighting or competing with Ruby. I refused to believe everything I knew about my sisters was a lie. There was no way they were good enough liars to make up an entire set of personality traits contradictory to their own and keep it up. So, where did that leave me? They were lying about the one thing, but their personalities were more or less the same, so why and when did they join something like that?

Maybe… well, when did I find out about it? Just a little while after I got Ray. They gave off the impression that they had not been expecting me, but I was pretty sure mom said something about 'now that I had a legend', so whatever this was, maybe you needed to have a Pokemon familiar and a certain magical prowess in order to be indoctrinated into the dark court, or whatever. That was supposed to happen much earlier in life than it did for me, the average age for the ceremony was twelve years old. At that point in life, people are more than a little impressionable. The age I was supposed to have been indoctrinated was an age where children were very easily swayed and influence. All the rest of my sisters were indoctrinated at that time, and I was sure they were pressured into joining and justified whatever they had to do as a part of that court to themselves, or else changed their moral compass entirely.

Actually… that made sense, something made sense in this new light. Crystal had told me many times that I didn't need magic. Maybe that was because she wanted to keep me safe, because she knew as soon as I did manage to create a beacon and use it to call someone, the dark court would try to recruit me, and since I was old enough to know it was wrong… I would be in danger. Maybe she regretted joining them, but Crystal valued harmony over most other things. Honestly, I could imagine Crystal agreeing to join the family in this morally questionable endeavor just to avoid any sort of conflict with them. And she was trying to protect me? She was trying to make sure I wouldn't have to face that sort of decision? If that was the case… I felt bad for getting mad at her. She was just looking out for me and I took my anger out on her. Of course, I was only making these deductions based on what I thought I knew about my sister. If, by some chance, they were infinitely better liars than I gave them credit for, then all of this went out the window, now didn't it?

"In the name of justice, I arrest you!"

I raised my eyebrows as I felt something metal clack against my wrists. There was suddenly some dude in front of me. He had shaggy black hair and dark skin. He also wore weird clothing like Strider. He was smiling widely, a knife in one hand and the other holding onto the chain between my handcuffs.

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded. I… what was going on? Arrested in the name of justice? What justice? How was arresting me justice…? Who was this guy? Was this one of the criminals, one of the residents of this place? Where did he come from? Was I so out of it, so lost in my thoughts, trapped in my head that I hadn't noticed this guy comer right in front of me and slap some handcuffs on me?

"You are. Under arrest. In the name. Of justice." The strange man said, enunciating in a much exaggerated manner, taking pauses to make sure I understood every syllable coming out of his mouth. Yeah, I knew what he said, I just had no earthly idea what it meant.

"In the name of justice?" I asked. I was still very confused, and a little pissed off and a little scared, just because I had no idea what was going on with this guy, and he just had this huge smile on his face, like he had said something very clever.

"Yes. Now, don't fight if you want to stay alive." He said, and traced the dull side of his blade along one of my arms, just to illustrate what would happen if I were to defy him. At least, I was pretty sure that was what that was supposed to be? There was no telling with this guy, with the people outside. I took for granted that intuitive gestures meant the same thing, but that could not be the case at all.

No, I could not get so off track like this. This kind of off topic, rambling musing was what opened me up for this capture in the first place. For the love of Arceus, I had to focus.

Speaking of Arceus-

No! No! I could not entertain that line of thoughts right now! I could think about that late, for now, I had a crazy guy with a knife to attend to. Something about justice? What was his angle, exactly? There was no way he was really a good guy. He was pulling at the chains on my handcuffs, but no matter how much he pulled, I would not move. Ray's will to stay and sleep was stronger than mine to go… the strength of my will to go being zero.

"What?" The guy asked, his voice had a weird lilt to it that screamed danger. He tugged at me, I would not move. He lifted me off the ground and pulled me, and still I would not move, because I couldn't move.

"Oh… I see what's going on. Sever the bond. Sacrifice in the name of justice!" He called out to me, pointing his knife towards me. Sacrifice in the name of justice? What in the world did he mean? What in the world was he talking about?

"…Um… If I'm not going to do it for him, why in the world would I do it for you?" I said, gesturing to Ray. I worked too hard for this bond, I wasn't going to give it up for anything.

"Maybe… for your life?" He brought the knife closer to my neck. I gulped. This wasn't good… So I had to make a choice… my physical life or a life of shame and despair, still on the run but without Ray. When put like that, dying seemed like the right option, but the idea of dying sounded awful as well. The other option was to beat this guy up or disarm him or something. Cool thing that I didn't know how to do that and also didn't know magic to do that at all.

And then there was a knife against that guy's throat. I sighed in relief. I wouldn't have to make that choice, at least, not today. It was Strider's knife to this guy's throat. I never thought I'd be this glad to see him. He pressed his knife so hard on the man's neck that it actually drew a small amount of crimson blood that stood out against his darker skin. I was fascinated by it for a moment, transfixed… the world faded out and I just saw the blood.

"Back away slowly. She's mine." I heard Strider, but it seemed almost muffled to me, like my ears were filled with cotton. Then, just in case the guy didn't want to actually listen to Strider, he started backing up, with the knife still to the man's throat. So now, the man had a difficult choice to make: Submit to Strider's will, or have his throat slit. I found myself secretly hoping Strider would slit his throat anyways to see the crimson blood, spurting, pooling… draining the life from this man who had threatened me. It was what he deserved.

Wait… what?

The man did not get his throat slit, he backed up with Strider, and then Strider swung him around and kicked him away. The man turned and ran.

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 **Hope y'all have an awesome day**


	23. An Old Fool

**Ray's pov, in the google doc, chapter 23 was accidentally skipped, so it was put as a redacted. After much thought, I just decided to fix the issue from ere on out.**

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There was a cloud on me, all around me, and inside, too. It was a gray, stagnant cloud. I kept inhaling it and it consumed my vision. I felt like I was floating, but not of my own volition, I was… being floated? I wasn't in control of my feelings. Energy rushed through me, all emotions, seemingly at once, and Mel at the center of it. Infinitely close and infinitely unreachable.

Everything rushed through me, but nothing touched me directly. I was separate from it, my mind and body disconnected. A million thoughts, a million questions were racing through my head, but I couldn't hear any of them. I could only feel them, and they were overwhelming. I couldn't do anything about it, though. I just floated, and they washed through me, over me, like an adrenaline rush. My body moving purely by electrical shocks, nerves firing by themselves, no input from me. But I knew that wasn't really happening. What was happening? What was? Or was this the real place, and the other was some fantastic dream. All just a dream, what a joke, love, loss, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

What was wrong with me? Something was wrong, I was coherent enough to realize that. I didn't usually think this way…my thoughts organized themselves in a logical order, not flitting from topic to topic, never really finishing anything, never accomplishing, never mattering. Never really living or mattering. Never. What a word, huh? Never. I could not imagine ever leaving this state. I would be stuck like this forever in an endless maze vortex… fog… thing.

I had to wake from this nightmare or go back to sleep or whatever, shift from this state of being to the other. The state of reality that had Emerald in it, the state of reality in which I had a body and could actually do something, have, um, what was the word? Agency. The world where I had agency. Whether that was real or fake or mattered, I wanted that one, where I could at least feel like I was doing something to affect the world around me. I wanted out, I wanted out.

But at the same time, I couldn't make myself care, and I didn't know why. I would scream if I could… just a floating consciousness in a sea of nothingness. Was this death, did the thing from the ocean kill me and this was the after-life? No, I had seen the world I knew after that and before this. It pulled me in, embraced me, and squeezed out everything I had.

I felt a thunk on my head. I blinked, and the world cleared. What? What was that?

I blinked a few more times. Whatever happened before immediately faded from my mind, and something told me that was a good thing. In front of me was some old guy, a human, with a pointy hat and a robe.

"Now why did you do that?! He was sleeping." Emerald said. Was she referring to the guy in the hat who I assume was the one that hit me on the head? Why did she care if he woke me up? Maintaining her prize so she could use him? I sighed. Something had me slightly on edge, I wasn't sure what. I groaned, waking up. I was real stiff, I must have slept for a very long time. Last thing I remembered, I was flying over an ocean, towards an island. Now we were… on that island? How long had I been out, and what knocked me out, exactly? My mind was a bit fuzzy, cloudy. I felt like that was important, for some reason. I shook my head clear of those thoughts and focused again on what was in front of me.

The old man's hat and robe were a light blue and kind of shimmery. He has some sort of glass thing on his face similar to Strider's, but clear, so I could see his tiny brown eyes. His hair was gray, and he held some sort of bulky club… staff… stick… thing. That was what had hit me on the head, I could tell.

"Poor guy is afflicted in pain. Anyways, what did you young whippersnappers want?" He said, his voice had obvious signs of age but was surprisingly strong and supported. He was right, I was afflicted, afflicted by him hitting me on the head! Was he trying to breeze over that fact? And whippersnappers?

"For the last time, quit calling us that, old man." Strider said, already somewhat frustrated. This guy must have been calling us that for quite a while, now.

"I didn't live to be my age to NOT be able to call people whippersnapper!" The old man retorted.

"What is that word, what does that mean?" Emerald asked.

"Means you're young, no good, cause trouble. Hoowee, you cause a whole mess of trouble, don't you?" He chuckled in a slightly off balance sort of way. I looked at Emerald, her gears were turning, and I could tell she was coming to the same conclusion I was. This guy was crazy. Not only was he crazy… this was the guy that was supposed to teach Emerald magic, wasn't it? This was the guy. THIS was the guy… this old fart. I could not believe something like that. But, it was the only conclusion I could make. Strider said he was bringing us to this island to find somebody to teach Emerald, and now here was that man. What kind of magic could he do? My own strength relied on hers, so I wanted her to at least have a competent teacher.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so…" Emerald trailed off, she looked hurt. I didn't really understand, but then the guy whacked Emerald with a stick.

"I was only kidding, lighten up." The old man said, Emerald flinched and rubbed her arm where she had been hit. It wasn't so much a comforting statement as a command. She would lighten up or she might get whacked again.

"Why did you hit me?!" Emerald's eye twitched a little, I think. I felt like something was a little bit wrong with my perception, maybe? No, it wasn't actually anything, but her eye had not twitched. I guess I had only imagined it.

"A hit from the magic stick does the trick!" The old man said, and then giggled profusely at his own rhyme, like it had been a big old joke to him, and he was amazingly pleased with himself.

"A hit from the magic… what? You are awful shady, old man." She said.

"Anyways…" Strider said, trying to derail the conversation from this weird roundabout, this weird talking circle that wasn't going to go anywhere. "This is your teacher, princess." Strider said, and let out a sigh. "I know what you're thinking, I know what you're thinking. This old guy? This crazy guy? Well, listen, I know he isn't exactly the most ideal situation, but nothing about your situation is going to be ideal. This guy won't turn you in, at least. No, this guy won't turn you in. So, pretty much any other teacher is going to turn on you. This guy, no offense to you, old man, doesn't have the presence of mind to do that. I don't know how good a teacher he's going to be, because of that, but he knows his stuff. He's the best you're gonna get." I stared at him. That was it, huh? We went from the most patient teacher in the entire kingdom, the lady who managed to take a failure, a dud like Emerald, and train her well enough to actually summon me… She was going from that teacher to an old fool who looked like he didn't know the sea from the sky, let alone how to teach magic. I had a lot of doubts about him, but it wasn't up to me to choose a teacher, to accept or deny this man. That was all on her. I didn't have to deal with him much.

"What's… his name?" Emerald asked. She seemed a little frazzled, I wondered why.

"He doesn't go by a name." Strider said, somewhat sheepishly, scratching his head.

"You can call me old coot!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Did this guy have a volume switch, or rather, did he know how old he was?

…

I mean, did he know how loud he was? Could he hear himself talk? Could he even really understand what he was saying? I sort of had my doubts. This was… this was going to be Emerald's teacher, huh?

"Are there… any other choices?" Emerald frowned, she looked somewhat disgusted at the old man. She was used to Lilly and her Guardevoir. Hm, that reminded me. I wondered if those two were also part of this dark court. We had not seen them, but there had been so many people in hoods. She could have been one of them, and I would not know. I couldn't see them, and I didn't have excellent smell or anything. I could hear fairly well, but the hooded people on the edges of the court had not spoken, so that gave me no hint. I might have been able to sense her aura or something if Emerald's magic was stronger, but it was not, so I could not tell that way, either.

"Not good enough for yer highner?" The old coot asked. I raised an eyebrow. Was that some sort of accent, or did he just speak wrong? "I tell you I'm the best teacher a whippersnapper like you's ever gonna get."

"Where is the Pokemon you're bonded to?" I asked outright. I decided that would be the best policy, especially with a guy like that. He could be roundabout, if we were both roundabout, we would never get anywhere in a conversation. He would only answer my beating around the bush with more beating around the bush… That sounded like a real pain in the behind and I wanted no part of it. If he was going to teach magic, he should at least have a companion, I didn't see one around.

"Gone." The old coot said.

"Old man doesn't have a Pokemon companion. Never did as long as I've know him." Strider said.

"How are you supposed to teach me magic, then? If you aren't strong yourself?!" Emerald asked.

The old coot nodded with intense vigor. Strider said he knew his stuff. Could one know how to do magic without the ability to do it and teach someone like Emerald? Well there was only one way to find out, test him. Maybe he could teach her to… lengthen our tether? I sincerely hoped that was the case, because if it was, then I could get away from Emerald for an extended period of time, maybe forever. I wanted to go back home, but if I couldn't go home, I at least wanted to be further away from the person who made it impossible for me to go back. Was she really that selfish? She just refused, she outright refused to send me back, and I hated it. It was so incredibly frustrating.

"Can you teach us to lengthen the tether?" Emerald asked. Ok, good, she was on the same page as me with this, even if it wasn't for the same reason.

"Mhm. That and all the other things, that and all the other things, my dearies." The old coot put on a fake witch voice. Why was he doing this? It was stupid. Then again, he was old. But was that really a valid reason to act childish and stupid like this?

"Then demonstrate." I said. The old coot looked Emerald up and down, then placed a hand on her back between the shoulder blades, and pressed quickly. I heard a popping.

"Now run." The old coot said.

"Wha-?"

"DON'T QUESTION YOUR TEACHER, NOW GO!" The old man pushed her. She wasn't used to such a forceful command, and so she just obeyed, she ran through the field and to the flowers… she ran for a good while. And, as she ran… I realized I felt no pull. Not until she was as far as the woods on the far end of the field. Only then did I start to feel the tug, and so did she, and so she stopped. She slowly turned back as she realized what just happened. She just went ten times farther away from me than she had ever been able to. Ten times at least, it was probably actually more than that. She walked back to us, looking triumphant. It was my guess that this was the fastest she had unlocked any powers, ever.

Emerald looked between me, the old coot, and me. She frowned, and sighed, looking at the kind of guy this old coot was, but I knew she could not argue with the results she had just seen, and it wasn't like there was really any other choice for her, not right now, anyways.

"Alright. I'll have you as my teacher." Emerald said.

"Not so fast, young lady!" The old coot said, and banged his staff on the ground. "First you must complete…" And he paused here for dramatic effect… "THE TRIALS!"

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 **Hope you enjoyed, and have an awesome day**


	24. THE TRIALS!

**Emerald's POv**

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"What?" I raised my eyebrow for probably the thirtieth time today. I had really assumed that the old coot… what a stupid name, why would he want to be called that… would just take me as a student. No, he was being picky, I guessed. So now I had trials to go through so I could get this stupid, and stupidly effective old guy to teach me what he knew. And make no mistake, he knew quite a lot…

Not many could teach me anything, unlock any sort of potential in me. Many had tried, and failed to get me to do anything. I had to concentrate for minutes, even hours to make anything happen… And this guy just runs in, pushes me a little, and suddenly I could do something I thought would take years to do.

"You heard me, young lady. Don't pretend you didn't. Rayquaza, let this girl on your back or I won't teach you how to get away any more than that. We're going to the trial grounds." The old coot said, then jumped onto the Flygon, kicked it with his heels, and it took off without Strider? Seriously, what was this guy? Why was this the guy… why were these the guys I was stuck with. Why were they all guys? I wanted a girl with me, I wanted someone to relate to. I wanted somebody who understood. I wanted…

I didn't know… So, I guessed I was supposed to get on Ray and fly after him. I knew Ray did not want me to get on him. Ray glared at me for a long, drawn out moment, then he broke eye contact, sighed, and gestured for me to hop on. I did so, delicately. I didn't want to be a burden to him. Or, maybe, I should be more of a burden, since he was going to complain so much. I guessed I could always go in the middle of those two and not go out of my way to not be a burden. But then, no, I did not want him to have more reasons to want to leave. Although, at this point, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to change his mind, no matter what I did, or how nice I was to him. He had a life that I took away from him, and I wasn't sure anything was going to make up for that. I couldn't just give up on my life-

What life? This was the adventure I had been seeking? Well, I had been hoping it wouldn't be an adventure in which I was on the run from my own family. I was hoping… maybe, I would even get to go on an adventure or two with my sisters… or the kids. I missed the kids. If only they could see me now… If only I could show them what I was seeing, this world outside the walls. It was pretty dangerous here, though. We had only been here for like… less than a day, and I had already been held at knife's point.

Oh, and that blood…

I was knocked on the head.

"Ow!" I cried out. The old man hit me on the head with that stick, again! He had doubled back around with Flygon, so Strider could hop on, too. All I felt from it was pain, too, no tingling or warmth or anything that would indicate there was any sort of magic flowing through me. I sort of doubted that it was actually a magic staff. It seemed more just like a regular walking stick. He hit me again.

"No wonder you are so miserable at magic, whippersnapper." He really liked that word. He hit me again, now I was getting irritated. "Pay attention to me, young lady. I'm talking to you!"

"What, I- Old coot, stop hitting me with your walking stick, would you?! Can you read my mind or something?!"

"Focus, that's what you're lacking, focus." He said, then floated in a circle, waiting for us to get on with it.

"I know, I know." I said. Lilly had told me more or less the same thing many times. It took immense energy to concentrate on any one thing for a long time. It was something I worked on, but… Well, there was a reason I was seeking a mentor.

"Hold on so I don't have to catch you again." Ray said snidely, then took off. I could fall a lot farther now, without him having to come rescue me, but thankfully not far enough for him to be able to consider just letting me fall. Not that he would do that, but still. It was a weird balancing act, holding onto him tight enough that I wouldn't fall, but not so tight I would choke him accidentally and piss him off. I thought I was doing a pretty good job. The old coot and Strider took off as well, and quickly took the lead. Again, we headed up into the clouds. Without a disguise, it was very dangerous to fly out in the open. Rayquaza made a very distinct shape in the sky, and if we were spotted… well, I didn't need or want to explain what that would entail.

So where were we going? The old coot was leading the way on that Flygon… I really had to ask Strider what his name was, I felt weird just referring to him as a Flygon. Then again, I also felt weird calling my new teacher an old coot, but that was what he said he wanted to be called. What a weird guy.

Almost as soon as we went above the cloud cover, we went back below it to descend wherever we were going. If we were only going to be under cover of clouds for a few seconds, why even bother? Especially since my body didn't take to well to the sudden change in elevation, oxygen, pressure… whatever else shifted suddenly when you went from the sea level to the clouds in a matter of a few seconds and then back down again. This was brutal, and by the time we got back down, all my strength was gone. I rolled limply off of Ray and lay in the sand. I felt nearly dead.

I felt something on my head and blinked awake. I saw something brown and it poked in between my eyes. It was unfocused. It was… the old man's stick. I shoved it aside, but it just swung back at me and whacked me in the face. Ugh. I rolled over. I heard a disapproving tsking, but I didn't care right now. I just rolled over. I got bonked on the head again.

"Would you stop?!" I jumped up and spun around to face the old man. My face must have looked like a mad animal's.

"Remember how you feel right now. Catalogue it." The old man said, looking directly into my eyes with his gray eyes… eyes which reminded me of what mine used to be. Catalogue this? Was he pissing me off on purpose? "I said catalogue, not analyze." He bumped me with the stick again. How was I supposed to do something like that? Uh, I had to do it though, quick before he hit me with the stick again. I, uh, catalogued what I felt like, what my body felt like, what my mind felt like, what everything was.

"Very nice. You can let that go now." He said, giving me a smile and putting a hand on my shoulder. I breathed out and let myself relax. Wait, no, I was still angry.

"Wait, no. You keep hitting me with your stupid walking stick! I don't care if you're the best teacher in the world, I'm not going to put up with stuff like this!"

"If you don't like my method, surely you'll like my madness." Was all he had to say in response. Poor guy didn't know what in the world he was talking about. Or maybe he did, and I just couldn't interpret it correctly.

"What are you, an oracle?" I asked snidely. He didn't respond, and just walked on forward. Seemed we were on another small island with a beach that reached around in a small band, and then gave way to jungle. The old man led us into the jungle, into the unknown… dark edges all around.

What? It was just a jungle. Just plants and some mushroom looking things. I had never seen these kinds of plants, or even mushrooms. I had never seen a single mushroom, there weren't any in the gardens or anything in the kingdom, but I had seen pictures in books. I didn't read a whole lot, but when I did, it was about the outside world. They were sort of like plants but sort of not. You could eat them, some of them, some were poison to people and would absolutely kill you. How did you tell the difference between the two? I… did not know. So, it was probably best I just didn't eat any of the mushrooms, stick to something I recognized.

We walked deeper and deeper into the jungle. I heard little noises. There were Pokemon in here? But it sounded like it was just Pokemon, not people, and that was good. Pokemon by themselves weren't going to hurt me… I was pretty sure. I hoped so. I couldn't see any of them, but I could hear them. Were they hiding or something? Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I could see the hand tail of an Aipom, a purple monkey with a hand on the end of its tail, disappear into the treetops.

The old man walked for a little while longer, then turned around and leaned against a tree. I waited with a raised eyebrow for him to say something, anything. Arceus, this guy was weird.

Oh, that was right! Arceus! I was thinking about that before and got interrupted. Well, now the old man was just sitting there, maybe he would let me think for two seconds. Hopefully that wasn't too much to ask for from this guy. Arceus… I had not seen a single thing referring to Arceus since I left home. Maybe he only reigned in my kingdom? But, that wouldn't make sense. You couldn't get very far without seeing a statue or a carving or something, a painting, someone mentioning its name. Neither the old man nor Strider had mentioned it once. Maybe because it was just… we were distracted?

"Ok, we're here. Now what?" Ray asked. He interrupted my thoughts this time, not the old coot. Although, this time I was pretty much done with my thought. The old man kept interrupting me in the middle of my thoughts too, and sort of referencing my thoughts. There was no way he was a normal old man, not with what he did. Did he also… read my mind? Could he read my mind? Maybe he really was an oracle or a psychic or something, I didn't know. He was something. It was weird that he had some kind of power… or did he have power? Was it just knowledge and intuition? Just what was he?! It was a mystery I could not figure out and it was frustrating me… though, I supposed I was asking too much of myself too soon. I had only been around him a few hours. Still, I didn't even feel like I had a solid first impression. Something about that seemed wrong. You should at least be able to get a read on someone from a small level of interaction, but I got nothing from this guy… except that he was strange, indeed.

"Yeah, old coot, now what? Where are these trials?" I asked, repeating Ray. It had been a few moments since Ray asked and he had said nothing. He didn't seem to want to respond to me either, so I went up and touched him on the shoulder. He started, as if waking up from a deep sleep. There was one problem, though, he had his eyes open the whole time. The old man was… sleeping with his eyes open, was that it?

"YOU HAVE PASSED THE FIRST TRIAL!" The old coot screamed, making several Pokemon run away with scurrying noises all around, on me, through me. Passed the first trial? I didn't do a single thing? All I did was wake him up. Was that the first trial, or did he just not know what he was talking about?

"But… I didn't do anything?" I sort of half asked half said to the old coot. He either didn't seem to hear me or didn't seem to care. I didn't know which would have annoyed me more. Oh wait, no, he was responding,

"That was a warm up trial, now, Strider." The old coot said, and Strider stepped forward. He had been surprisingly silent up until this point, and surprisingly… respectful, and the old coot had not called us whippersnappers for a while. Was it because Strider had said something? The two of them seemed to know each other, and have some form of respect for each other. The old coot gestured forward and pointed towards us. "The trial of affliction, just like I showed you."

Strider nodded, then closed his eyes and started to glow a grayish glow, an orb formed between his hands. Like the old man showed him… so, Strider was a student of this guy, too, at least, he was at some point. I guessed that solved the mystery of how the two knew each other.

Strider opened his eyes, and the orb slammed into me. I blacked out.

* * *

 **Hope you have an awesome day!**


	25. Affliction

**Ray's POV**

* * *

I opened my eyes, I was in a forest, from what I could tell. It was dusk, I thought. I wasn't sure. Everything looked… purple. Why was everything purple? And… and that fog, that fog from before was there again. I remembered it, vaguely, at the edges of my memory.

That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed is that nobody was around me, nobody. Not Emerald, not Strider, not the Flygon, not the old man. Nobody was around… and it was… unnerving. I had not been alone in a while. I could not feel warmth from someone else, I could not feel the energy of other's living around me. This forest was… dead. Even the trees themselves seemed to be dead or dying all around me. What was this place and… how did I even get here? Hm?

Well, first order of business would be to figure out where I was and where everyone else was. Emerald, at least, couldn't be too far away. She could be out of sight and earshot, now, but she couldn't go so far as to evade my view from the sky. I floated up, not too quickly, as I didn't want to miss something by just shooting straight up. The trees went up high, but the canopy… was quite thick. I hit the top of the trees and tried to push through it, but, uh… how do I put this? The leaves seemed to be made of stone or something? They looked a sort of purplish gray, so it was possible they actually were stone leaves. I tried backing up and head butting in a place where the leaves didn't look quite as thick. I just ended up with a headache.

So… I wasn't breaking through those leaves, and I couldn't see a whole lot from this height, twisting vines and branches, a little bit of the ground. There wasn't a lot. I wasn't going to get anywhere this way, and I certainly was not going to find my companions like this. I floated back towards the ground. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed harder to fly down than it had been to fly up. There were more vines and stuff in the way going down than there had been going up, and the vines had spikes, too. I had to be careful if I didn't want to scratch my skin. It wasn't too difficult, however, because of my snake-like structure. I could bend every which way, I could tie myself in a knot, if I really wanted to. That would be a really bad idea, though… probably mess with my digestive tract and whatnot.

I missed the palace food, I missed my palace life. What even was this? What was I even doing, now? Strider sent a large orb in between the both of us, me and Emerald, and I blacked out. I could only assume she blacked out too, and was in here somewhere. This wasn't a place I recognized. So it couldn't have been, you know, home, for example. It would have been great if it was home, but no place in my world looked this… monstrous. This didn't feel like either world I had been in, but something else, something separate. I didn't know how to explain what it was I was feeling.

What else? The old man said something about the trial of affliction. So, this was some sort of trial? So this was probably some sort of bubble reality, a coliseum for the old coot's test, training grounds. But then, why was it so outwardly, in your face spooky? There didn't seem to be much of a point to it. It was not scaring me or anything, so what was the point? Maybe there was no point, and this was merely how things were? Things didn't always need a point, I supposed. The old man also said something about affliction before… He said I was afflicted and called me poor thing.

What did that mean, and what did trial of affliction mean. He said I was afflicted, so was this actually… my trial, or something? But it was a trial for Emerald, wasn't that what it was supposed to be? Well, we were connected, closely connected, so maybe if I strengthened myself, I was strengthening her. But, I didn't want to strengthen her, I wanted her to strengthen me. I had done enough training on my own in my own world. It was her turn.

But then, where was Emerald? If this was supposed to make her stronger, shouldn't she have been there, at the very least. Now, that was not to say I wasn't glad to be rid of her. This was not the most ideal place to be, but I didn't have to deal with her right now, at least.

I made it to the ground and took a breath. It was silent, absolutely silent, none of her voice there to annoy me, to remind me what she took away from me, to remind me of Meliae. Meliae… The light of my life… a light gone out. Wait, no, not gone out, that was a horrible thing to think. I backtracked on that metaphor and went with another one. It was like clouds had covered the light, like a veil was in the way. This fog… the fog was blocking me from her, too. I knew she sent me off with a smile, but that was only because she knew about my duty. I knew… in her heart of hearts, she did not want me to leave. She cared about the position of Chosen One, but if I came back, she would not send me away. She missed me as much as I missed her. The two of us, we were the greatest of combinations. Somehow, I would return home to her purity, with or without Emerald's help… whatever it took.

"Whatever… it took…?" a voice spoke out of the shadows, all around me, it seemed like. I couldn't sense where exactly it was coming from. I looked around, trying to locate the voice, but there were nothing but trees and vines, dirt and fog, and everything was tinted in blacks and purples.

"Who's there?" I asked calmly. The last thing someone would want to do in this situation was show any sort of fear or weakness. If it knew you were afraid, it had you in its jaws. Once you were there, all was over, doom would befall the world. It would crunch your skull and with the oozing brain connect the neurons and fire.

"I'm already here… you invited me in." The voice… which I supposed was the voice of the forest itself. I invited the forest in? What in the world was this, I didn't understand at all, and yet I felt the understanding tug at the edges of my consciousness, but I did not want it there, but I did but I didn't but I did but I-

"Who's there?" I repeated my question, louder this time.

"I heard you the first time, but you didn't answer my question yet. Would you truly do whatever it took in order to get you old life back and reunite with the love of your life?" Whatever this thing was, it could hear my thoughts, or maybe, in this reality, thoughts and words were the same, because I was not sure if I could hear that voice with my ears or with my mind. Usually there was quite a clear distinction between the two, but that was not the case right now…

That was a question, a question I would have to consider seriously. Was I willing to do anything? Was I willing to do anything to get back to Mel? Well, Mel was worth the world, worth everything I had, but it sounded like the voice, the forest, wanted him to do something rather unsavory in order to get what he wanted, and offered him a simple question… was he willing to do whatever it was that was necessary in order to get back to the world I knew. Whatever it was, whatever Emerald would have to do, it was costly. Well, it was costly to her because she would lose her familiar, maybe crossing the barrier the wrong way, getting back, merely required some sort of personal sacrifice? Was that it? So, what? Would it be my principles for my passage home? But I didn't want to do anything to make Mel ashamed of me. She wouldn't have to know how I got back, I didn't have to tell her how I got back, just that I got back. No, no, the burden would still be on my shoulders. I would know, and she would quickly find out, I was sure. I could never really keep secrets from her, she was so good at reading me…

"You're getting a little ahead of yourself, don't you think? You sound like you're contemplating murder." The voice of the forest said. Right, it could hear what I was thinking, the thoughts were the same, spoken or inside.

"Well, the way you phrased it sounded like you wanted me to do something pretty serious." I retorted. The voice, the entire forest seemed to pause for a moment, before continuing.

"Come find me." It said simply.

"Find you?! You're the forest, I already found you! Where am I supposed to-" But then I took a breath and centered myself. There was no use of getting mad at a bunch of trees. It wanted me to find something, and it clearly wasn't about to say anymore. So… I guessed the only thing I could really do right now was explore.

A faint, lonely, stringed instrument played in the distance. It was something I had never heard before. It sounded beautiful and tragic, and I did not know why. It felt like it was playing through me, like the vibration waves, the particles of the music boring through my skin and coming out the other side, but not enough to destroy me, only enough to take a piece of me with it, a piece which I could not say I would ever get back.

I was probably supposed to follow that. My mind was fuzzy again, and thoughts kept drifting through my head that were not quite mine. It wasn't the words of someone else, though. They were my words, but also not. I… could not explain. It was like a script written for me that I was executing with exact precision.

I, what, what was I doing. Follow the music, follow the music. The vines, the stone, petrified spiked vines were starting to close in. I did not like them, but they were a part of me, the sharp and horrible parts.

Stop, stop, just follow the music. Or maybe I was actually supposed to run away from the music, the music spelled out doom, and it was making my thoughts weirder. I tried to turn around and go the other way, any other way, but the vines were thick behind me, all around me, the trees seemed to be leading me to the specific location the voice wanted me to find. If it was just going to lead me somewhere specific with noise and vines, physically pushing me toward it, then what was the point of telling me to go find it?

The music seemed to get louder and louder, and then I thought I showed up at the spot the music was coming from. There was a dark purple energy form that looked like my silhouette. It had an instrument in its hands.

"What kind of sick magic are you using on me?!" I demanded, my breathing getting heavy for a second. It turned towards me, it had no eyes or anything, just an outline, a three dimensional shadow.

"I'm not doing anything on purpose. It's just me, I guess, just you, you guess." It said.

"Cut it out… you know what you're doing." I asserted. I was struggling to think clearly. If this was manipulation, this wasn't fair. If I wasn't doing something of my own volition, then what was the point of this whole thing?

"Yes, but you have the key to your redemption, to all that you desire, and that is me." It said, why was it speaking in such a cryptic, roundabout way?

"I have to pick your words one by one, forgive me." The shadow said snidely, in the same sort of tone I would use to talk to Emerald, apologizing in a way that was slightly insulting. Was the creature trying to learn my language on the fly, and that was why it sounded kind of weird? That didn't really matter too much to me, anyways. What I really wanted to know was-

"Ok, I found you, or rather, I wandered around for a while in a creepy forest and you guided me to you. Now, could you tell me how I can get back to my world?"

"I don't ask much, just do to Emerald what she did to you. Steal away her life." The shadow of a dragon floated gently near me, its voice echoed off the walls, or, rather… the trees? Wait, no… what? There were walls. There were walls here? How did that happen? I was, I was in a forest, but… but now, walls, buildings, and the same twisting branches… and there she was.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day**


	26. Glitch City

**Emerald's POV**

* * *

"Whoa, hello?" I looked back and forth wildly. What in the name of all that was good in the world was happening? One moment I was in a jungle with the old man and Strider and Ray and the Flygon and… now… now I didn't know where I was, but I was alone.

"Hello?!" I yelled out, but the words just echoed back at me through the maze of buildings made of dull gray stone. It looked a little weird, so I touched the closest building. It had a texture I had never experienced before. Was this some material or method of building I did not know about? That wasn't hard to do, most of the buildings in the kingdom inside the walls… were just carved out of the stone, or they lived in the caves. They were well furnished, but they were in caves. This stuck up from the ground out in the open, and there looked to be hundreds of them, all identical. They seemed to go on forever, forever and ever. There were some rectangles cut out, windows, they must have been, but they didn't have any glass, they were just open. There were no doors, the lowest opening was ten to fifteen fee up in the air, and the walls were sheer and smooth. I… It was possible that I might be able to climb up there. I didn't know if it was possible. There was only one way to find out, go and attempt a climb. Just like in the caverns of my kingdom.

Well, it wasn't really my kingdom anymore, was it? Was this my kingdom, now? A kingdom of nothingness and weird buildings. The walls were at really exact right angles, and it was actually kind of intimidating for a reason I could not understand. There were a lot of things I seemed to be feeling that I couldn't understand. What was this place? This was… where Strider sent me, where the old man told Strider to send me. The trial of the affliction, or the afflicted, or something like that. What was that supposed to mean? Who or what was afflicted, and what did it have to do with the buildings?

I backed up as far as I could without backing up into another building, then ran up to a building and jumped as high as I could. I could not reach the lowest window. I tried several more times, with the same result. I frowned, something I couldn't scale, and there were no foothold anywhere, unless they were invisible or covered in cloaking magic. This was a test. And I guessed part of the test was trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be doing for the test, and what I was being tested on. Oh, sorry, not test, trial, he called them the trials. I needed to climb something? Maybe? I needed to do something with the buildings, that was obvious… they were the only thing here, for Arceus' sake! But what was I supposed to do with them? Maybe I was supposed to find one that was different? All the ones I could see were the same, but maybe there was another one somewhere that had some sort of different markings or a window low enough for me to get to or a wall I could scale?

I didn't feel very safe here without Ray. It was weird, I had been in way more overtly threatening situations without him, in caves and such, exploring… it was dangerous work, but having a big dragon that felt inclined to protect you, even if he wasn't that powerful… because of me. Still, even without the magic and powers he'd had in his own world, he had size on his side, and claws and teeth and such. The point was, he was intimidating, and having a being like that to protect me made me feel safe, and then having that presence be taken away suddenly. Was that a part of the trial. I wondered if Ray felt the same about being taken away from his wife. I wondered what she was like. I imagined a slightly smaller, more slender Rayquaza, with maybe a slightly lighter green color.

It was useless to think about that right now. I started to walk. Everything was just sort of… static, nothing changed, I felt no wind, and the air seemed stale. I dragged my hand along the buildings as I walked along. Perhaps my hand would hit a bump or crack or something, something that would give me some sort of foothold to climb.

"Hellloooooo!" I called out again, just in case. Nothing came back but my own echo. What a boring trial. Maybe it would get more exciting when I actually got to the part that was supposed to do. Yeah, actually doing something would probably help.

As I walked, I began to hear… something. It wasn't really a sound I could identify. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before. It was like… um, how could I even describe it? It was high pitched in nature… and sounded, um… it sounded, I guessed, like when a teleportation panel was broken, like when it didn't, um. To be honest, I didn't know how those things worked, or how they broke, but they made a weird noise when the pictures and words wouldn't move. We had to get dad to come fix it. He seemed to be one of the only people who actually knew how that technology worked. Did that mean there was a teleport panel somewhere? Well, even if there was, it was pretty useless to me. What could I do with a broken panel and no way to fix it?

I kept walking. I wasn't sure what I was doing, or what I was supposed to be doing. I felt even like I was losing myself a little in the massive city, and the loud noises, the super loud, high pitched noises, and low pitched noises too, but they were all very, um… discordant. Unnerving. And then, in the distance, I finally saw something different.

One of the buildings was cracked. There was a foothold, sweet! I could actually get up there, that was enough like a real rock formation or cave for me to climb. Didn't even need my light, cause it was out in the open. The lighting was really white, and made everything kind of stark and harsh and the shadows were sharp. I could not see where the light was coming from. It was coming from the sky, of course, but I couldn't see a sun or clouds or anything like that, nothing that would generate or obfuscate light… there was just… light.

Anyways, I checked my pockets, I was in a white dress like during the ceremony, but I had shoes for this one. No pockets… My gem light had been in a pocket of mine. Hadn't really needed it this whole time, and didn't know where it went now. I hoped I found it, eventually… me and my little floating light had been through a lot of things, and I liked having it with me. It was… good memories, with the kids and by myself in a cave, seeing all there was to see, not being a screw up, being good at something.

I put my hand on in the cracks in the tower, and pulled myself up, then foot, hand over foot over hand over foot, and so on until I went up to a window, or what I was pretty sure was a window, it could be a weird sort of, um… door, I supposed? No, no, that was stupid, it was a window, or, actually, it really didn't matter. I peered in and saw… nothing, absolutely nothing. That was weird. It was just blackness in there. I peered in a little further… nope, still nothing. Huh… something about this was… drawing me in…

I climbed higher, the rest of the windows were the same, just blank, nothing in there, but there had to be something there because it was… something was calling me. I got to the top of the tower… it was taller than all of the others by far, reached all the way up into whatever counted as sky, and inside, for the building had no roof, none. It was just a hollow rectangular prism of darkness. Shadow inside, shadow inside…

And I stood at the precipice and stared down into the void, and it stared back at me, it seemed… And I wanted to jump in, but instead, it came up to meet me, a black shadow exposing me, consuming me, in my soul. It was comforting. The distortion got worse, the sound got worse, it was like distorted screaming, screaming at me. A dud, a failure, screaming at me, consuming me.

The buildings fell, crumbled under my feet, and I fell, fast and free. I didn't feel anything about this, and I didn't know why. I was going to die, now. I was going to die, and in a pretty bad way, too. There were better ways to die. I guessed this was the old coot's way of saying I failed the trial. It seemed it was too hard for me. I was going to be forgotten in this city of nothing. I was falling and … and the world was distorting around me in patches, and I thought I could see… symbols, symbols and stars. Was this even real, or was I dreaming? Color flickering in and out, and then I hit the ground.

I did not die when I hit the ground. Instead, I just stood back up, and everything was a bright red. Blood. Everything was blood, everywhere? Scarlet… crimson… blood… why did it fascinate me so, why was it calling me? I wanted more of it, more of it, all around. I ran into another building, it popped and splattered, it, too, was blood, warm, no longer smooth, held together by membrane, living. The buildings were alive, the world was alive.

What was wrong with me? What the hell was happening?! What was happening, what was happening?! The word was screaming at me, and I might have been screaming back. Or, maybe… I was silent. I could no longer tell. Every nerve in my body pulsed with an energy I and never felt before, something I would never feel again, something that was only here. I was here, and I was not, and I was so very right, in this place, it was right. It was right here, for once in my life I was in the right place at the right time, I wasn't a mess up. Blood, bathed in blood, my face… shining with it.

Madness… this was madness, wasn't it, this was what happened when you mind started to unravel, but I couldn't make myself care about this. So… I did fail the test, didn't I? Or was this part of the test? Well, the high pitched, low pitched, the distortion was gone, the buildings were gone, too. It was only a sea of blood, about ankle deep as far as I could see in any direction. The obstacles were gone, the obstacles were gone all around, and now there was nothing.

No, no, that wasn't acceptable. I couldn't just… I couldn't have nothing, something, I needed something to hold on to. There was a wall behind me, now, the same stone sort of but not really stone walls, and it was… it was pushing me forward? Why was it pushing me? And there were other walls too, closing in all around, closing me in, and the blood, too…until there was a giant building of blood, keeping me in suspended animation for a long time… forever.

Something disturbed my eternal slumber… or, I thought it was eternal, it wasn't necessarily eternal, I had no idea if it was, I had no sense of time. Something disturbing it, cracking the walls of the building, the thick walls around me. There were spikes, something on long strands… it cracked the edges, the shadows leaking in… My blood capsule, I liked it in here, I did not want to be disturbed. But something was doing something vines were coming in spikes on vines. I could have screamed, but the second I opened my mouth, blood came rushing in… and then it came rushing out. And there I was on the ground, and there was Ray, looking at me in a puddle of blood. Oh, there he was.

"Hi Ray." I tried to say, but I couldn't say a thing, because I was face down in blood. It was just a thick sort of gurgle. It tasted weird, not good, pretty bad, actually, but it was already a part of me. The blood was in me and about me. I… I could not think straight. There was too much red. In fact, in fact I did not even know if Ray was even there, I just sensed his presence. He was there, he was all around me, it seemed, and he was so far away. So far away, his soul did not reach me. Did he even have a soul right now? I could not tell. I couldn't tell anything, and I couldn't tell anything, couldn't speak, couldn't live, couldn't breathe. I felt like laughing until I died. Or perhaps I was already dead. Who could say?

"Steal away her life…" I could hear, in a hoarse, hash whisper. Ray was coming.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	27. Double Team

**Ray's POV**

* * *

She was lying face down in a pool of blood. When did that get there? When did she get there? She, I could sacrifice her to get my life back, was that right? Sacrifice her on the altar of my happiness. That was what she did, that was what she did to me, why not return the favor. She wasn't dead, she wasn't dead yet, I could tell. She was holding on, for some strange reason. What reason did she have to hang on to life, huh? Huh? There was nothing for her… nothing for me, nothing in this world.

I would not fall to despair, though. There was something I could do. I could-

"Quit stalling and just do it already. We don't have forever." The shadow voice said. I tilted my head towards it. "Steal her away."

I floated gently over to her, she was so delicate… so small… and yet, she was so important, she was my only way back, regardless of what I did, how I got there, she was the only way back. She was it, she was all I had. I held her close to my chest, she was warm. The blood on her stained my body, too, but somehow, it didn't seem to diminish any of the blood on her.

She was so small, so small. I could crush her, I could just crush her little body up against me and then I could be free, could be free. But, would that kill her? Would I even kill her? Could I? In this place, did death even exist? Maybe that was the test, if I would try to kill her, I would lose, and she would survive and I would be lost, I would die, be low and knocked down, into the darkness and shadow forever, and that other, that other voice would win, would win, would beat me. A battle of wits, a battle of wills. We were fighting for our lives. I looked down at her. She was only partially conscious. I was probably only partially conscious, too.

I looked over my shoulder, there it was… there was the solid shadow, looking over my shoulder. I didn't know what it was doing there. I… I couldn't see its eyes, but I could feel its eyes, if it had eyes, I could feel it glinting at me. I could feel it. Why was it glinting at me? Why was it looking at me like that? It was waiting for me to do something, that was it.

"This is…" Emerald sputtered up some blood. "This isn't good." That was the understatement of the century. Hearing her voice, something stirred in me, something was going on. Something was wrong.

"I know." I responded, a voice deep inside me answered her. All of this was from the shadow, I knew it was the shadow, I knew it I knew it. That night, that night, was it last night? Was it only last night that it happened, or was it a while ago? I didn't know. Time meant nothing. Space meant nothing. Emerald's sisters… could they be behind this, no, no, I couldn't let myself get distracted.

That night, I flew and the sky was black, and the eyes, there were eyes glowing in the dark, bright blue eyes glowing at me, and then the shadows rushed at me, and I started falling, and I fell on the beach. I, I was on my back and twitching and there was a shadow inside me, fog all around. The forest was inside me, I was the forest and I was this too. I was, I was…

I was Ray, and this was not where either of us belonged. That shadow was causing all the trouble, that was my shadow, forced upon me. It was twisted and inverted, but it was mine. I had to stop thinking like this, it was messing with my head. I was letting it corrupt me further. I took a deep breath and tried to remember things logically.

The night Strider woke me up and told me we had to run away, I got up, got Emerald on my back, and flew. And, as I flew over the ocean, the sky and sea turned pitch black, and I felt multiple presences. I saw two bright blue eyes and the air turned incredibly cold. I started to freak out, despite myself, and then felt a rush of wind. A shadow form of myself flew at me and took residence in my mind, and it had been corrupting me ever since. I bet a similar thing was happening to Emerald, although I did not see her shadow. I saw mine, though, and I could take care of it right now.

"Ray…?" I heard her voice, small and weak. The shadow had its claws around her, and it looked like she was weakening.

"Get off of her. You are no longer welcome." I said.

"Oh?" The shadow turned its head sharply towards me. "Seems you've regained consciousness. Good job." I raised an eyebrow. Was that it? Did I do the trial? Was that horrible night just an elaborate plan from the old coot? If that was the case, I had a thing or two to say to him, most of which I would say with my claws. I didn't care if it was some sort of, I didn't know, weird teaching moment?

"Well?" I asked, after a moment. All it said was good job, but did not move. I still held Emerald to my body. I quickly let go of her. She didn't expect that, and so made an unceremonious splash into the blood. None of it had faded, the buildings and the forest and the blood were all still there. I just snapped out of whatever stupor I had been in.

"Well what?" The shadow asked. It did not seem to know what I was talking about.

"Well, I passed the test, didn't I?" I asked. In the back of my mind, I could hear Emerald coughing.

"Test?"

"The… the trial of affliction." I said. "I passed, didn't I?"

"What? You just temporarily regained your consciousness. It will slip away again. There is no test, there is only submission." Its voice… seeped into my mind a little, and it made me twitch. I… no, I couldn't go down this road again!

"No." I said.

"Uh, Ray…" Emerald called over to me, and then threw my head over to look at her. She was standing in the midst of an army of blood… clones… of Emerald? It was the same as the Rayquaza in front of me. They looked aggressive, and they were approaching Emerald.

"Tell him the price. Tell him. Now." The clones all said in a sort of screaming, droning voice that hurt my ears, hurt her ears, too.

"The… price?" I asked. Emerald's eyes went wide and looked around her. She was not in her right mind right now, I could tell.

"Tell. Him." The words were long and distorted, it could bend metal, and it seemed to come from everywhere. They seemed to know what they were talking about. I wondered why they didn't just, you know, tell me themselves. Maybe they wanted to make her tell me herself, so I'd hear it from her mouth?

"If I send you back I lose all my magic! All of it! Forever!" She cried out, and there seemed to be dark streaks going down her face.

"I see… and here I thought there was some reason about the balance of the world or something. No, it's purely just you, huh?"

"Everything I ever worked for…" She was crying, now.

"You see, she doesn't care about you, you are only a means to an end. It doesn't matter that you were going to get married… it doesn't matter that you had a life and kingdom to run… she cares about herself, and only herself. There is no good in such a person. Steal away her life, and your life will be yours again."

"Shut up!" I backed up as Emerald sprang up and punched the shadow in the nose. It reeled backwards, stunned. I was stunned to, at her sudden action. She was really having all sorts of mood swings, huh? Wasn't she crying just a second ago, and then before that she just looked dead. There were a million blood clones of her, and none of them were trying to stop her, but were instead lurching towards me. I whipped my tail at them and they dropped into the lake from which they came.

They were surrounding us. There was… only submission? That, I refused to believe that! I whipped around to the shadow of myself.

"Emerald, hop on." I said, and positioned myself so that she could jump on my back, which she did. She surprisingly light and gentle, more so than usual. I appreciated it. I could feel her dread, and I wanted to watch it burn. I flew forward and smashed into the shadow, swiping at the shadow, swinging at the clones. I didn't want to bite the clones because they were made of blood, it would taste bad… or, a worse prospect, it would taste good due to some corruption. So I could only use my body like a whip, and claws. That was better than what Emerald could do, though. She couldn't do anything, and if she sent me home, she never would, huh?

I flew up and away, up and away, and the forest leaned into us, grew overhead in order to block. It didn't want us to leave. This was not a test. We were not meant to pass.

"I have an idea. A beacon to guide us home." Emerald said, and within a few moments, she began to glow, and then I began to glow. She was using what magic she had. There was a glow in the ground, and all the blood began to drain down into it. "Down there, full speed!"

"What?!"

"It's the only way out, it's showing us the way." Emerald urged. I didn't know why, but I listened to her. If she was wrong, I was going to be so mad in the afterlife. I dived, and the shadow dived after me, trying to get there too. It was a race, I guessed, and I would not lose. But what exactly would the winner get? Their spot in the world? Her spot in the world, she just wanted her spot in the world and so did I, that was something we all wanted.

"Here goes nothing." I mumbled under my breath, my own kind of secret prayer. And then I slammed into the damp, red ground….

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	28. AdventureSTART!

**Finally, let's get on the road already, Emerald's POV**

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I opened my eyes, and there was Strider, looking into my eyes… he was holding me, at least a little, in his arms. As I came to, my heart started to beat a little faster. This was nice, I could let this keep happening for at least a little while longer. Why was he just holding me, now? Was this more of an illusion, but a better one this time?

"Oh, girly, yer up." Strider dropped me on the ground. I was already on the ground, but he let go of me. Now it was significantly colder, aw, I wanted him to hold me a little longer. I couldn't lie, I was attracted to him. I was pretty sure nothing would come of it, seeing as we were running for our lives, and I wasn't sure there was really time for that sort of thing. But, if the situation came up… who knew? Oh, and I had to get to know him as a person, first.

"Yeah… I'm up." I said groggily.

"Congratulations. You are now free of the affliction." The old coot said, doing a sort of little dance.

"Good, good to know, I'm glad that's over. Did you cause that, old man? Because, if you did-" The old coot went ahead and interrupted Ray.

"Not you, unfortunately. You were hit much stronger than she was. It still lives in you."

"Still lives in me…" Ray mumbled, his eyes looked haunted. Oh boy, this wasn't good. I wasn't sure exactly what this meant, but… I remembered what had just happened. Was that shadow Rayquaza still around? The guy that was trying to get Ray to kill me. Could I be safe near him, then? I didn't really have much of a choice, did I? Well, now he knew why I was keeping him here, and he didn't seem very happy about it. He just, he didn't understand…

"Is there something we can do about it?" I asked.

"There's a way to get rid of it, in time. I think I need a bit of cleaning myself, but I'll do it later." Strider said, stretching his arm across his chest. Cleaning? Was that what we were doing? The trial of affliction was cleaning ourselves of some, what, what was it, some kind of curse? I didn't know. If something happened, it happened during that time I was asleep and Ray moved me. Something cursed us… afflicted us? Something that wanted me dead, and wasn't able to do it directly, so it tried to make Ray do it. That was just a guess, though. I had no idea what was really going on.

"But, you are clean, and that's enough. You passed the trials. I can teach you, now." The old coot said. He seemed a lot more coherent than he had been before, then again, so did we. So, had he been afflicted, too? Or maybe our perception of him had been distorted. Who could say, who could say? If our perception was affected by this affliction, then what could we base anything off of, huh? How could we gauge the truth… well, we could backtrack to what was true before we were afflicted. How did this even happen. I mean, I knew Ray said someone came and attacked us, but what was it exactly, and why did the old coot and Strider know about it… to the point where they knew how to fix it, who exactly were these guys.

"But what about me?!" Ray was more than a little worried about himself and his condition. I didn't blame him. What we had just experienced… I never wanted to have to do that again, and I was sure he wanted to avoid it too, at all costs. 'At all costs' something about that phrase sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn't let him get back into that state again. I knew he didn't think I did, but I cared about his well-being. He just asked for the thing I could not do…

"You couldn't defeat it right now, so…" Strider hesitated for a moment. "It'll be there for a while, festering in the sea of your soul, or whatever it is you call it, old man." The old man nodded his agreement.

"No time, right now." He agreed.

"Then… what?" I asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" The old man said. He had this huge grin on his face, and a sparkle in his eyes. I had to wonder why he did that. I had seen that sort of child-like sparkle in the eyes of the elderly before, and it was just because they didn't know what in the world was going on. I didn't think that was the case here, he knew something, that was for sure. But how present was he? He hit me with the stick again, knocked me on the head. I scowled. Apparently I had taken too long to answer him… even though I had never intended to answer him, I just wanted to wait for him to finish his statement, but no, I guess he wanted a response from me.

"No, it isn't. When and where does the training begin?" I asked. The old man didn't seem to like the fact that I couldn't guess what was going to happen. Sorry old man, I didn't know. I couldn't just guess what he was thinking, oh no, what a horrible thing.

"The training will be on the way to go stop the dark court's plans." The old man said, he was grave. "Just about everything is on the line, here." He was a serious kind of guy, when he wanted to be, I guessed.

"Oh! The people off the Western shore!" I exclaimed, suddenly remembering the whole reason we had been running away in the first place. We were running away to stay alive, of course, but we were also trying to stop whatever it was they were doing. The old man winked at me and tapped his nose. I took that to mean that he was telling me I was correct.

"You couldn't do it without some magical lessons, huh? We want them to stop as much as you. The crown has hurt way too many people. That court has hurt way too many people. I mean, I always thought I was bad but these guys… they're shaping up to end the whole dang werld, if we're not mistaken." Strider said, pushing up the weird thing on his face.

"What is that on your face?" I asked. I knew I was being very distracted and I was afraid the old man might bonk me on the head again with his totally not magical and just being mean to me stick, but he did not. I braced for it, but it did not come. Was he fine with my curiosity for once?

"Sun glasses." Strider said, a little dumbfounded. It was like he expected me to be able to do something about this, there was nothing I could do about-

What, I meant, no way I could know about this. This… sun glasses thing, did not exist in my kingdom, I had never heard or seen anything. Why did my thoughts go off track there, though? I thought I was supposed to be free of the affliction, now. Wasn't that what was causing my mind to wander like that, go down avenues that made absolutely no sense? Or, ones that didn't really fit together, the logic didn't flow, and so your mind started to slip and fracture. I glanced over at Ray. I was going to be alright… right?

"Well… let's go then. The faster we go the faster you'll teach us things, right?" Was he hoping to get more powerful, too? He didn't seem very concerned about the whole everything on the line thing. Maybe, did he want to try to break the connection himself? Was that possible. This guy was determined to find a way back, huh? If there were a way to get him to go back to his life without stealing my life from me, I would do it… probably. I would consider it much more thoroughly.

"I'll ride with Strider?" I asked Ray, he nodded.

"Flygon can take two of y'all, but not three. Ray, yer gonna have to have someone fly with ya, buddy."

"Child, get on there." The old man said, already on the Flygon. I automatically responded, I was so used to being called child or kid or something… I wasn't used to having a name, although I had taken to it pretty quickly. Emerald, based on the stone. We, me and my sisters, were all named after precious metals and stones. I had often wondered what I would be named after. It wouldn't be something one of my other sisters were named, cause that would get real confusing real quick. I thought, perhaps, amethyst or opal? I studied many of the local types of stone in out kingdom. It was mostly all the same, just that white shale rock. However, the meteor that formed the crater we lived in brought with it many bizarre and wonderful types of stones, including the stones that we made into our gem lights. I, again, took a moment to notice just how open everything was, just how open the sky was. I hopped on Ray, and he, with a grumble, took off. What was his problem? I thought we were working together pretty nicely just a few moments ago.

We flew in silence. I was getting used to this, I think, flying and all. Ray flew way different than Flygon. Ray snaked around weirdly, it probably had something to do with how he was built. Flygon, on the other hand, flew straight, and steady. I wished I could be there, I wished I could have a Flygon. Maybe if I had been born out here, none of these weird things would be happening. I wouldn't have had to endure that weird blood curse. I wouldn't have been cursed with my family name, associated with that court…

I felt bad for my sisters, just a little bit. Crystal, mostly, I felt bad for Crystal. She didn't have anything bad in her heart, not truly, I didn't believe it. She was the nicest one, and I really didn't think she was acting. She even tried to keep me out, keep me ignorant, so I didn't have to get dragged into that world. I liked the world better the way it was before, me and the kids, adventure in our backyard. If I had the chance, I would try to get her out, too. She could join us or something. It would be nice to have someone else in the family on my side, not just be completely alone against them… not that it had ever been any different. At least I wasn't entirely alone, now. This was a pretty weird group for me to get stuck with, but we were together.

"I got a target around here." Strider yelled over the roar of the wind. The old man just sort of waved him off, lightly smacking him in the back because the old man was behind him. A…target? What was that about? Strider kicked the sides of Flygon and shifted his weight, steering Flygon down below the cloud cover. They hadn't talked to either of us. Did they want us to follow? To keep going? There was no real indication, but before I had a chance to talk to Ray about it, he made the decision that it was a good idea to just go ahead and dive after them. I wasn't ready for that, and so I had to hold on tight in order to not lose my balance, which of course, caused me to accidentally choke Ray… again. He bucked and I free fell for a few moments before he was able to catch me again and continue his dive again. I held on more loosely this time. I hoped he wouldn't be too mad about that. I was getting better about the strength of my grip, he just caught me by surprise.

Free falling was not something you got used to. It felt like all your insides were still up where you were, and you were watching yourself leave your guts behind. The wind made everything blow upward, like when you were underwater on you back, it was like… slow motion, suspended reality. It was weird, I knew, and I wasn't exactly sure words were really going to do it.

What in the world did Strider mean by a target. I remembered the knife he had up to that guy's neck… the way Strider handled that thing and ruthlessly made him submit to his will. That justice guy was a whacko. All the people I met so far outside of the kingdom were real weird. I didn't know what I expected. Could I not actually find a normal person? I wanted to find a normal person, and a girl, I wanted to travel with at least one other girl. Our travel party surely wasn't whole, yet. I… I wanted Lilly, I really did.

We followed Strider, he was flying down fast, a green blur, faster than we were. They were flying right towards the ground. I knew he would swoop up in time, though. Yep, there Flygon went, flying straight up. I looked at Flygon. The old man was on there, but Strider was not on there anymore. I raised my eyebrow, and looked back to the ground. We leveled out a bit to watch what was about to happen… or, what had already happened. There was a body on the ground, and Strider had his arms stretched out to the sides, a large knife in one hand. The man's neck was slit. The man was dead. The blood… didn't make me feel weird, that was good. Before I got into this weird headspace when I saw blood, but now was fine, so that was from the affliction, I could only assume.

He just… he just killed a guy. He had slit a man's neck. And that man had done nothing to him, nothing to us. He had just been minding his own business when Strider just… ended his life. That was insane. Was Strider, did Strider lose his entire mind? And he said it was a target. So, he meant to kill this guy. Why in the world did he mean to kill this guy? What did this guy do to deserve being a target? Flygon flew back down to pick Strider up, and they flew back up to meet us. As Flygon approached us, Strider had taken out a handkerchief and he was cleaning off the blood on his knife. I didn't take a good look at it before. It was a pretty fancy knife, it had a curved blade, that reminded me a little bit of a sickle, but it wasn't quite that round, it was absolutely a knife. The blade was kind of big too, it ran the length of his forearm. He has a sheath on his belt, I never noticed that.

"What… what was that?" I asked, mouth agape. He looked up at me, his head still tilted down.

"An assassination." He said it as if it should have been very obvious, and I should have been able to see that. Of course I could see that the man was dead, that Stride killed him with the knife. I was traveling with a murderer! "What?" He said, tilting his head up towards me. "You never seen a murder before, princess?"

"…No." I said, a bit hollowly. He raised his eyebrow, like he had been joking, and it was a bit of a surprise.

"Huh, really? Well, it's common." He said, his face serious. "I just get paid for it."

"What, you kill people for money? How disgusting can you get?" I spat, then stared down at the body, killed in vain. He did nothing to Strider, Strider just killed him for dirty money. And what did he mean it was common? Was this world… was this world different?

"I wouldn't be judging. Your family's the one that does most of the killing around here." He said, he sounded disgusted. I… what? My… my family did most of the killing? What did that mean? Did they run out here and kill people? What? The dark court wanted to disappear some city, not city, town, or, I dunno, a people. They didn't just murder random people… then again, maybe they did. Turns out I didn't know anything about them. Still, when did they even have time to do something like that? Murder and victimize a land.

"When did they do that? I see them most of the time, they don't have time to go ravaging the country land." I said. I didn't know why I was trying to defend them. I wasn't really, I guessed, I wasn't really trying to defend them, I just wanted to understand.

"Well yeah, not directly, they have the armies do that." Strider explained. He finished wiping off his knife and sheathed it.

"Armies…" I trailed off. The kingdom had no armies, my father had no armies. There were no armies to command, what was he talking about.

"You really are sheltered, huh?" Strider leaned forward on Flygon. We were hovering a few feet above the body. What exactly… had they been hiding from me? Strider looked into my eyes. "You really don't know…"

"Not hear, there are observers, off to safety." The old man said, he was half asleep or something, and he was back to not making a whole lot of sense. So, I guessed… we were going somewhere else?

"Aren't you going to at least hide the body or something?" I asked.

"Why bother with something like that, little lady?" Strider said. The guy seemed genuinely confused, like he didn't even have to worry about getting caught or anything, and perhaps… he didn't? Murder, a world where that was just a common thing, a thing that you couldn't even get in trouble for. There was something… there were a lot of things about this world that I did not know. And as my guides, I had an old fool and a killer with a sly attitude! Perfect!

"What is wrong here… have things been like this the whole time?" I asked.

"A good long while, long as I've been alive, at least. Armies show up, pour out of the capital, that place you lived, that crater place? Anyways, they come from the ocean, patrol the land, and execute people for some arbitrary reason. From the look on your face I'm thinking this is news to you." Strider said.

It was, it was very much a surprise to me that this was what this world was. Was it? Was he telling the truth? This seemed like it was a load of nonsense. I couldn't, I couldn't believe it…

"Excuse me, what?" Ray said. Ok, he was on my side, too, on this. It wasn't just me thinking this was wrong. He was a little distracted by the corpse, as one was expected to be, but I was a little concerned about him doing this… he was still afflicted. What if he turned on me, and oh, there was the other thing, our tether, could the affliction or any sort of ill of the soul go over from him to me. That was a scary thought. "That makes no sense, everyone looked so peaceful there. There was no army, it was not like this. The dark court… There's no way it's that bad, just going out and murdering random people. Why would they do that?"

"Something something sacrifice…. Honestly, I couldn't really tell you exactly. They get more powerful from it, not exactly sure how it works." Strider said.

"Let's go." The old man said. "You have no other targets on the way?"

"Nah, that was my only job, for now." Strider said. He kicked Flygon's sides quickly, and they were off. We paused a little, Ray stared at the body.

"Hey, Ray." I said very softly. I just wanted him to break eye contact with the corpse. It wasn't going to make things better and it was likely going to make everything worse. He could get over this, he was just sick. I hoped he was rational.

"Yes… right." I seemed to break him out of a trance. He shook his head and kept on flying, going after Flygon. We were off… and into what kind of world… I suddenly realized… I had no idea.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	29. Blinding Hatred

**Ray's POV**

* * *

"So… you could have sent me home this whole time, huh?" I asked, almost a little too casually. I guess I could afford to be casual, considering I had the power in the immediate situation. Emerald was on my back, so I could drop her at any time if I really wanted to, and maybe this time I wouldn't pick her back up. Maybe I would just let her fall. We were quite a ways behind the others, so we could have a nice private conversation. At the same time, the others were still in my sights, so I wasn't about to get lost, either. Emerald didn't answer for a few moments, probably scared to answer, or lost in her own thoughts. Always lost in her own little world. Who cared about others? Certainly not her. "Huh?" I repeated, jerking a little in the air just to make sure she was really paying attention. She gave a little yelp. There she was.

"Is this… really the time to talk about that?" She asked. She was probably still hung up on what we had just learned about the kingdom. Royal armies killing left and right, huh? It just added to a long list of reasons I needed to get out of here, out of this world and back to mine, back to Mel. I missed her warm body against mine, her kind words, kind nature. She was always so considerate. It made me disgusted with the girl I actually had on my back.

"Yes." I said, simply. "First you said you didn't know how to send me back, and now I find out you could have done it the entire time."

"No, I can't." Emerald said. I wished I could look her in the eyes, make her look me in the eyes when she said that, make her understand the full weight of what she was saying to me.

"Yes you can. I remember what happened in that world with the blood. They made you tell the truth. You can, and you always could. You just don't want to." I could hear the intense bitterness in my voice, and to be honest it scared me a little, but it was honest. I would not backpedal or apologize on this. This was how I felt, and Emerald needed to know that.

"…My magic. I worked so long for it. It would be gone forever… no way to get any back, to live without magic for the rest of my life… nobody would ever accept me."

"Your magic? My kingdom! My wife! Sorry to break it to you, princess, but your magic doesn't really amount to much. You have used it exactly once during my entire time with you, and it was the same stupid trick you used to yank me from my life in the first place. I'm willing to bet you did just fine without magic before, because you've been doing fine without doing any magic now! Your magic is useless." I vented to her. It was harsh, but warranted. She thought, she honestly thought the two needs were equal.

"You don't under-"

"I don't understand?! No, I think you don't understand. I was ready to be your partner, I was so ready. I trained for it for years. I would have done just about anything for you. I was excited, too, you know? I was ready to take a princess and go protect the skies… I was ready for that. And then you made me wait for five years-"

"That isn't my fault!" She protested, I violently flung her, she hold on, a little too tight. I couldn't let that stop me. I wasn't finished yet.

"Which would have been fine, too. You made me wait and wait, and then I gave up on waiting and moved on. I reclaimed the life I had given up to be a chosen one, to be with one of you. Then, just when a new chapter in my life was about to begin… a husband and a king for my people… THAT'S when you decide to finally get just barely good enough with your magic to tear me out of my life." I could feel the bitterness inside of me growing, something growing in me, a heat, a rage. "I wasted my entire life, because of you."

That shut her up for a while. We flew in tense silence. There was another thing too, as it turns out, the position of chosen one… all it got you here was the "privilege" of killing multitudes of innocent people, making the whole thing a farce. It wasn't the king Mewtwo's fault, of course, or the council's. I was pretty sure they didn't know what exactly happened to us when we went over to this world. It wasn't like people came back. When I got back, I was going to tell them, and I was going to stop this whole chosen one thing. It was designed to help the world, but instead corrupt human royalty were using us chosen ones to kill.

I had to wonder… what my friends were like now. We had bonded during our training. I had become especially close with the Groudon and Kyogre, they were cool guys, even if they did fight quite a bit. I would always mediate, though, and we would come out of it better friends than ever. I wondered what their lives were like now? Hm… we were trained to go along with our human partner. We had our own opinions, of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were influenced by their princesses. When I thought about that, I was glad I was not with any of those girls. Although, maybe I would not feel the same way if I actually had been assigned… bonded, to one of those girls. Maybe I wouldn't even feel like what they were feeling. Maybe I would think they were in the right. Blood for power, huh? No, no matter what way I sliced it, that wasn't right and it would never be right.

I thought I could hear crying… was Emerald crying. It was over the wind, so I wasn't quite sure I could actually hear it, but I thought I heard her. I couldn't really turn around to check her face, but I would go under the assumption that she did have the audacity to cry right now. Not from the body, not from the nightmare… well, wait, had she been crying then? There were streaks on her face, but it seemed like it wasn't tears… more like… ink or something. Anyways, none of the actual horrible stuff that had happened within the last day or so, I couldn't tell anymore. No, no she was crying because I was yelling at her and not just quietly sitting and dealing with her… her utter idiocy.

"Really?" I asked.

"Just… just shut up and fly, huh?" She said, she was definitely weepy. Wow, that was just about the worst thing she could have said to me. I was… wow, I couldn't believe it, I was actually seeing red. I didn't think that was an actual thing that could happen. Also, I was so unbelievably angry it seemed I did a complete turn around and my face froze. I wasn't emoting at all. I was scaring myself, just a bit, but I really didn't care right now, I really couldn't make myself care. I didn't care I didn't care.

I thrashed violently. Emerald tried to hold on, squeezing my neck, but that only made me panic more, thrash about more violently until I knocked her off me. I continued to fly over towards Strider and the old coot, towards the Flygon. It seemed they hadn't noticed what was going on. I wasn't going to call their attention to it. Yes, Emerald was still attached to me by the tether, but now that the tether was longer, she didn't have to be on my back. She could swim in the ocean, that would be just fine with me. I really didn't care. She wasn't going to die that way, so I didn't care. It might hurt me a bit when she hit the water, but it was worth it.

Yep, there it was, a tinge of pain and the sensation of plunging downward, even though I was still flying high in the air. We could feel an echo of each other's pain. It was worth it to make her hurt, to hurt her. She hurt me, so why in the world not pay back the favor she so kindly gave to me. I couldn't actually have cared less about her. I would drag her through the ocean, I did not care.

Finally it was quiet. I breathed in and out deeply a few times. My eyes were still seeing red, even though I was calming down. Was something wrong, then? Either with the world or with my perception. Who could say who could say? I did not see them reacting at all, and they seemed to get further away. I went faster but they seemed to get further away, until I was alone in the dark sky. What? What what what what? This again? Was this happening again? The affliction, was this the affliction, was this because I dropped her, but, but I was in the right she ruined me, surely I would not get punished for that.

No, no, I could not let myself fall down this rabbit hole again. Wait, rabbit hole? What in the word was a rabbit hole and why was that the image that popped into my head. What was a rabbit and why did it have a hole you could fall down?

What if I just killed her, just got it over with. That would surely break the tether, break my bonds my prison bonds, bonded to this world, bonded to her. I wanted to get out, I wanted to get out, this word was awful, this world was the worst thing I couldn't stay here. My breathing got heavy, in and out, in and out. Quickly, too quickly. What was this? Was this death? Was I going to die? Was the affliction, the curse, the disease, was it all worthless, all deadly. Dead, I was dead, inside I was dead. Even worse, my life had never begun, she stole it from me, killed me, so why not return the favor.

Why not… return… the favor…

Because I wasn't about to contribute to the darkness of this world. I was not going to kill her. I did not want to kill her. She made me angry, and if I could ditch her, leave her behind forever, I would do that at a moment's notice. But right now, I was stuck at least somewhat near her. I would stay nearby, up until the point the old man taught us to be far, far apart. Then, when that happened, I would leave. She couldn't do a whole lot without me, and if she could do without me, she didn't need me in the first place, and she could send me home where I was needed. I uh… I thought about what I would do when we could be far apart. I thought about maybe … finding a life, a purpose here. But no, that meant I was giving up on Mel, didn't it? Plus, if I did make myself a life, I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that Emerald would find a way to ruin that too with her selfish ways. She was just that kind of person. I sighed heavily. What was I going to do? I couldn't… I couldn't force her to send me back. I wanted to go, I wanted to be free, free of this world.

Why was this world so dark, why blood in return for power. Why did sacrifice strengthen magic so much? I didn't use magic, only humans used magic… and some Pokemon, I guessed. It was something outside of our biology, and most of our powers came from our biology, not an outside force. Magic, as I understood it, was magnifying the energy of the world and concentrating it through your body. So I guessed, um, the energy of another's life was pretty powerful, and then that, in turn, made the magic powerful? I did not know how it worked, and I was pretty sure Emerald didn't know anything about this stealing a life to strengthen magic. Strengthen magic… the stronger he magic was, the strong I became. Energy, power transferred over the tether. So, if the dark court had really powerful magic… that would explain why the guy with the Rattatta beat us so absolutely. That was not a fun memory, incredibly embarrassing, really. It was because he had such strong magic, because he killed. If that was what it took to be strong, I could stand to stay weak. That was not worth the power.

Or was it, if that meant I could get home. Forsake the people of this world so I could go home to my people, to save my people, so they didn't have to come over here under the rule of corruption. Become the corruption in order to insure nobody else had to. That was… a very romantic idea, and something inside me burned with it, and burned to do something with all this pent up rage. Maybe that was why they did it, to take out their aggressions on this absolute mess of a world. Yes, the castle and the surrounding area, what Strider called the capital, was nice, but out here… everything seemed awful. Why was there that shining city… in a world so awfully full of darkness?

Speaking of darkness, I still couldn't see the others. What in the world was this? It was really annoying, was what it was. I couldn't tell if things were really happening or not. They could still actually be there, I could be right near them and yet my mind said otherwise. Or, there could be a dark cloud that was legitimately obscuring them from view, and I had no way of telling the difference.

A hand grabbed on to me. What? I squirmed. Was this real? It didn't matter, it was real enough to me, and then darkness, and then something hit my head hard, and my consciousness was gone.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	30. Sky Pirates

**Emerald's POV**

* * *

Man, I loved being in the ocean .. yep, this was the best. I loved everything about this, not annoyed at all. No, Ray, no, don't mind me, I'd just swim. Swim in the ocean with… who knew what was down there, could be all sorts of horrible dangerous creatures or gross things in the water or like, something that would eat me. It was cold too. I knew I made him mad but he didn't have to toss me into the ocean. He didn't have to-

But at the same time, I understood why he did it. I just, I couldn't, I knew all the things he was saying were right, and it wasn't my place to ask him to just start over here with me. I did make him wait, but that wasn't my fault. I tried to have the ceremony on time, I really did. I didn't know why I couldn't do it, I was just… I was the dud, like everyone used to say, I was the dud, and that was why I was so useless. And now I was in the middle of the ocean, being dragged forward by the guy who was supposed to be my partner. We were supposed to be adventuring buddies. Maybe… maybe I had built up the expectations in my mind so high, Ray could never have lived up to it anyways. I wished there was a way without losing everything that made life worth it, everything I had ever worked towards. I couldn't just give everything up. Why'd it have to be like that, where one or the other of us lost everything? He wanted me to give up everything…

If I were a bigger person, I might have done it, too. But… I was always a failure. I did some crazy things to try and up my magic, and it meant everything in this society.

But…if it was made stronger by pain and death… if magic demanded life energy, sacrifice of the soul or… whatever this was. Was the worth of magic in the first place misplaced? If it fed off the pain of others… I shook my head. That meant everything I knew… ever… was wrong. No, no time for that right now, I had to keep swimming. Ray was lucky I was a strong swimmer. Otherwise… I might have downed here, and my corpse dragged along, just below the ocean surface. That wasn't a fun image. I wondered if someone's magic could stand to gain from something like that. That was all kinds of messed up and I wanted nothing to do with it, still, I couldn't help but picture some guy in a dark and heavy robe laughing maniacally over my dead body as my soul's essence was absorbed into him to increase his own magical prowess.

My sisters… There was no doubt that was how they got so strong. Was that what… separated the strong from the weak when it came to magic? Who did these depraved things… all that… death, the murder of villages, of innocent people? No wonder I wasn't any good at it, then.

Wait, what was happening to me, I was being… hoisted up in the air? What? My eyes went wide as the ocean got further and further away from me. I was flying? But, I wasn't doing anything, this was not of my own volition, which meant this was the result of somebody else's will enacting upon me, someone else's magic… or Ray was just flying higher and dragging me upward. I looked up to see if I could see anything physical was hoisting me upwards. Nothing was, that was what I thought but I figured I would check.

And so, up I went, and higher and higher… if it was Ray, how far up was he going? I was pretty sure there was only so high he could go. If he went too high, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to breathe. He could get away with exceedingly low oxygen, but he couldn't go past a certain point. And me… I needed a lot more oxygen than him. I hoped… he wasn't trying to kill me, to threaten me with death so that I would send him back. Was he that desperate? Or he knew I wouldn't send him back, so he wanted at least the satisfaction of making me suffer? No, no that didn't make a whole lot of sense… if he was that sadistic, he would want to be nearby. Plus, there were a lot easier ways to kill me than that. So, what was up? Why was he going so-

Oh, haha, I got it "what was up." Wordplay. Wow, even in situations like this, I couldn't help but follow every single thought like a little scurrying creature. That was going to get me killed at some point. It had already gotten me in trouble countless times in my seventeen years on this planet.

And then I saw it… something huge in the sky. It was too dark to tell what it was. Whatever it was, I was going up toward it. Was it friend or foe… friend or foe. Knowing the world… I was pretty sure it was foe, or at least this was the best thing I could assume. Everything was more likely out to get me than help me. What a cruel world. What was it… over there, it was big, it was wooden, I think. What was this thing? Was it, the shape kind of looked familiar? This was… a boat? Yeah, that's what it was, like the boats that were in the lake, but it was a huge, and I was going right to the bottom of it. But, it was weirdly in the sky? A… flying boat? I had never seen anything like that. But, I supposed, with the right amount of magic, with the right amount of… that which made magic powerful, I supposed anything was possible. Where was Ray? Was he on the boat? But then, how was he hoisting me up, and why was he on the boat in the first place? Questions flooded my mind as I inched closer and closer to the boat's bottom. Closer… closer… and then my face squished against the bottom of the boat, and then I still felt myself being pulled, like whatever was pulling me was trying to pull me through the boat itself. When it tried pulling me a couple of times, I started to drag along the side of the boat, my face and body dragging along the outside of the boat. Well… this was pleasant. Yep, yep, just getting my face dragged on wood paneling. This is exactly what I wanted in life.

And then, after a long, long time, way longer than it probably should have been, my face felt the cool air. It was no longer pressed up against the wood. I opened my eyes and saw a big burly man with a beard. That beard was something else, thick and orange and unruly, dirty, like the man had not washed himself in quite a long time. Behind him, I could see a Pokemon who was unmistakably Ray, although his head had been covered with a black bag, and he was tied up and limp, probably unconscious. My eyes widened, what did they do to Ray… what were they going to do to me…? Oh… what was I supposed to do here? Strider, if Strider was here… he wouldn't let these pirates kidnap me… he still needed to be paid.

"STRIDER! HEL-"

I was knocked on the head and fell unconscious, too.

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was, not the face of the burly man, but a sleek and stylish… powerful looking woman. Who was this? I immediately wanted to know anything and everything I could learn about her. She seemed so… exactly what I wanted to be, the spirit of adventure…

"Who are you…?" I asked. In lieu of an answer, she did nothing but pull out a sword and point it towards me. It was very close to me, a thin, sharp, but effective blade it seemed like it could slice through very existence itself. I didn't know why that phrase popped into my head, but it did. Ok, cool, she was a big sword lady, that didn't answer my question, though… who was she? And how could I be like her? And also here were we and was I about to die? Probably. That was not good… um, so what could I do to get out of this life-threatening situation?

I chanced a look around me, a little, and saw that I was just at the same place I was before, the deck of the flying ship. It was nearly dawn, I could see. The sun was just starting to peak over the eastern sky. That was… a new experience as well, seeing the sun rise over the horizon, usually, you know, the kingdom's walls were quite high… or, the capital's walls, I guessed. The place I knew as my kingdom was only the capital, and this was the land I was the princess of. These thieves and killers and crazy beings were my people… that was a hard pill to swallow. I always thought, you know, there would be other people out here, cool people with different ways of life. And, well, this was that but I wasn't expecting so much… vulgarity of character. Oh, now I was sounding all sort of stuck up. I was just… a sheltered child after all, huh?

Anyways, the sun was just beginning to rise, there was nobody else on the deck except for this lady… Ray was next to me, tied up, still knocked out, too. It must have been hours since I was knocked in the head. Ray was still out… that didn't make any sense. He must have been knocked out several times, or at least twice. Or maybe, something was keeping him asleep.

"The anesthetic will wear off eventually, he isn't dead." She said, she had a deep, authoritative voice and shook me, it reminded me of that same quality I heard from that guy in the robe that my family called dark lord or something like that. It was a very intimidating quality. The only thing was this was unmistakably female and the other was unmistakably male. I wondered if they were dating or something, that would be weird and hilarious. I didn't know why I thought that. But um, past how she said it, what she said… what did she say? Something wearing off… but she didn't know what that word was.

"Anesthetic?" I asked. I was, very confused, was this some sort of magic? She had never heard of this type of magic before, if it was.

"He's asleep, he will wake up." The woman said, then sighed and put her free hand to her face. "You guys in there really are hopeless, aren't you?" She said. I… had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"What…?" I asked.

"In the capital, you don't know anything in there. I'm surprised you aren't dead yet, Emerald."

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"You are a princess. It would strange if I didn't know about you. Although, honestly, it was nothing but a pleasant surprise, running into you two." Running into us two… so they saw Ray and captured him, and then pulled me up by the tether and captured me too. Um… how did they manage to do that? I had thought, if I was pulled by the tether, then Ray was being pulled way far away and our tether was still at the full length but… no… he was right here, right next to me. So how did they manage to do that? Did they have a lot of powerful magic too? And this, anesthetic thing… Did they kill a lot… were they going to kill me too on the altar of power?

"What are you… going to do to us?" I asked, glancing over from Ray to the woman. I was really… afraid, and fascinated. I wanted to learn more about her. But, um, the thing I wanted most of all was not to die here. It was too much to die here, I had people to save, I had things to do. And yet, there had been so many threats to my life recently.

"I'm going to be very honest with you, Emerald… I'm not sure what we're going to do with you yet. However, you are too valuable to just let go. So… you two will be staying here until we decide. And, by the way, those bonds suppress magic, so don't try anything, ok? It may not look like it, but this ship is a little tricky. It wouldn't do to have a magic fight here." She said. She made a show of slashing her sword through the air, inches away from my face, and then sheathed her blade. She was… incredible. But, there wasn't time to think about that right now.

"There's nobody else here." I said, frowning. I mean, there was the burly man from before, but I didn't see him anymore. Where was everyone? Don't tell me… this woman took on everyone herself? That was absolutely incredible! That… wow, if that was true, I didn't even have words for that.

"They are asleep below deck. It's a little early for pirates. I'm just here to watch you." She explained. Pirates? She was a pirate? A pirate in the sky? That… something about that sounded really cool. I didn't know about this, though. I had read about pirates. They were amazing adventurers, but also ruthless and such. They could live by their own weird ethics code, like some thieves did, or they could just… just not follow any rules. Those were the types of people you had to watch out for, those who didn't have a set of rules that they followed, a code of ethics or something. If they didn't, you had no idea what they were willing to do.

"Oh." I said. I didn't, um, I didn't know what to say to that. When I thought about it, it made a lot of sense. The sun was just rising, of course everyone was still asleep. "Are you tired?" I asked, I didn't know why I was being this considerate for a person who had just pulled a sword on me. It was just… I didn't know what to say, you know? It seemed like she was sort of done talking, I wasn't about to try to escape with her right in front of me. That seemed like a really stupid idea. And, well, so there was nothing to do but either try and talk with her, or do nothing. And, I really didn't like doing nothing. I liked to keep moving, even now, my body was wiggling a bit, my toes were tapping and such.

"Yes. Why do you care?" She said. "I'm not going to be lulled to sleep, if that's what you are asking. I am not going anywhere until the next shift comes to watch you." She said… she said she was tired, but she really didn't look it. This woman was on high alert. Now that I thought about it, it was only natural she was a pirate, she looked like the various pictures of pirates I had seen in my life, what with the slick flowing jacket and all. I loved the aesthetic. Pirates had been used as a threat before, something I might find if I went to the ocean beyond the walls of… the capital. I was still getting used to thinking of it as a capital city, and not a whole kingdom. I had never been afraid of the pirate threats, and never let it go and stop me from trying to get out there and explore all the same.

"Just trying to make conversation. There's not a whole lot for me to do here." I gestured to the bonds on me, and to Ray, my only other ride. I um, I was just kind of stuck here. There wasn't really anything I could do to escape, not yet, at least. I might try to find a way, maybe when I didn't have this pair of sharp eyes on me, with an even sharper sword.

"Oh… um… alright." She said, like she was considering if I was a worthy of having a lot of conversation with. If that was the best idea, she thought and thought for a little while. I almost considered trying to escape, she looked so distracted, but it was a stupid idea, so I declined that idea. "Sure… what do you want to talk about?" She said, she might have been more bored than anything, to talk with a prisoner.

"Who's… the captain?" I said, that was the first thing that came to mind, anyways.

"Me. Did you think it could be someone else?" She raised an eyebrow, perhaps a little offended, even. Oh, I didn't want to offend her. I didn't realize she was the captain. It wasn't that she didn't seem like she could be captain, she just, um, I dunno, I just didn't think of the captain as taking a dawn guard watch. Couldn't she just get someone else to do it and then get some sleep, herself? That would have made a lot more sense.

"Well, just, you're here, watching me… when a subordinate could do that. You could be getting some sleep. You have that authority as the captain, don't you?" I asked.

"Typical princess thinking." She shook her head and laughed a little, like she… pitied me? Felt sorry for me? What did she mean typical princess thinking? She saw my confused look and shook her head again, then started to explain. "That you can just pass off duties to your team members whenever you want. On this ship, we all chip in. We all have duties. We don't pass off responsibility to anyone else. We chip in and lead by doing. It was my turn to do guard duty, so I'm doing guard duty. You just happen to be there to guard. If anything, I'd take other people's shifts, not make them take mine. Lead by doing, you know? Or… do you not actually know anything about being a leader… even though you are royalty?"

I had… nothing to say to that. I guessed I didn't know a lot about being a leader. I never really went and tried to learn about it. I think Lilly tried to teach me about it a few times, but I didn't pay very much attention. I put the entirety of my attention on learning magic, there wasn't any time to also learn to be a leader. When was I going to be in the position to lead people, anyways? I was royalty, but in a kingdom I did not know, and the ones who did rule were trying to kill me because I would not blindly follow them. I didn't know enough to be a leader… but, if I did lead, I would call dibs on the shifts during the day, forget being up late at night. That sounded incredibly lame.

"I guess I don't. I'm a bit of a special case. Or, that's what they said to be polite."

"Outcast, huh?" She said.

"Yep." I replied.

"Hm…" She scratched her chin for a moment. She looked like a person who was very thoughtful, and did not move forward until she had things clear in her mind. But when she did move, it was fast and deadly. "Why are you being this friendly to me?" She asked me. "You know I'm more than likely going to kill you, right? Well, it might not be me directly, but someone on this ship."

"Um…" That was a super amazing question. I um, I had no idea, no real logical reason. I just, I guess I didn't feel maliciousness coming from her. I should have but something felt different about her. I sort of… wanted to follow her? Was she that good a leader, that she could make even her enemies bend to her will? That was pretty crazy. I thought the best thing, probably, was to just tell the truth. "I think you're really cool, and there's not a whole lot else to do." I answered. She did not seem to know what to say to that, exactly.

"You're a weird kind of kid, aren't you?" She said. She seemed to look at me, or maybe through me, or maybe inside of me, I had no idea what it was she was doing, exactly. Was this some sort of magic, or simple perception? Who was she… she was so cool. She exuded confidence. She could completely destroy me in a single blow, or take on an army, I was sure, I had no doubt. She was incredible. Or, maybe it was just me making things up in my mind, my crazy little mind. Maybe my imagination was getting away from me.

"Yeah, I suppose I am." I said, chuckling weakly. She thought a little more, and then smiled at me mischievously.

"How would you like to be a pirate, Emerald?"

* * *

 **Have an aweosme day**


	31. Seriously? Sky Pirates?

**Ray's POV**

* * *

My body… felt heavy… and a little tingly. I wanted to move, but I felt sluggish. What was this? It was the sensation of being tired… but, it was more than that. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it was… I didn't know.

I opened my eyes, but my eyes were heavy. This was no ordinary exhaustion. Whatever happened here, whatever was done to make me like this, it was quite strong. I was… it looked like I was on the deck of a ship. I tried to move again, and realized that it wasn't just me being tired that kept me down… I was being held by ropes. I was tied up. That wasn't good… Waking up being tied to a pillar was never a good sign. It usually meant you were a prisoner, or you were about to get killed, or you were a prisoner who was about to be killed. None of those options sounded very good to me.

I looked around. There was nobody around… But that was only a deception. There was no way this place was abandoned. This was a giant ship, like a ship that would be on the ocean, but we were very clearly in the sky. The sun was in the sky, it had not been when I was knocked out. It must have been at least a few hours, then. Great… I wanted, I wanted to be free, and now I was even more trapped than I had been before. I sighed internally. I just couldn't catch a break, huh? Get free of this web of lies and entrapment. What was I talking about?

Anyways, a thing like this huge ship in the sky, people had to be running that sort of thing or it would fall right out of the sky. Not to mention someone must have been there to tie me up. I wouldn't tie myself up or something. And… and where was Emerald? I was pretty high up. Our tether did not go that far. So… either she was dangling midair… which sounded hilarious, or…

"Hey Ray!" Emerald jumped down from a place above me and slashed a sword in the air. It made a swishing sound that made me flinch a little. What… what was she doing? Why did she have a sword now, and where was she jumping down for. I looked up. I was tied to a pillar that helped to hang up a sail. What was the point of having a sail if this was just… a magically flying ship? Sails only made sense if you were in the water and used the winds to move you.

The winds… I was supposed to rule the winds, supposed to regulate the winds of this world with my princess. Back when I was training to become a chosen one, I would often fly high in the sky and imagine she and I combining our magical strength in order to control the winds, alter storms, do all sorts of good things for people. That… was a life I would have been satisfied with, if she hadn't made me wait so long. If she hadn't taken long enough for me to give up and live my life there. I wanted to be back with Mel… but… there was more than that. I loved her, but I also loved my family. I had not thought about them as much because I was taken away right in the middle of the wedding… but my parents, I had lived with them in the castle, and king Mewtwo. He was cool, he was a good king, and a good father figure, secondary father figure.

And… life in the palace had been great… and now, now I was tied to a column on a pirate ship, on the run from a royal court, a dark royal court. I wasn't loving this life. It would have been better if she had just let me alone… and now she was dressed as a pirate. He only place she could have jumped down from was… there was a little basket looking thing. She had probably been waiting there for me to wake up? Or… something. That girl was a bother, that was for sure. I wasn't going to kill her, though. No, I wasn't going to kill her for what she did to me. It wasn't worth that moral weight. Although, it seemed a lot of people here didn't have such moral qualms. I was better than them, and my world, my kingdom was better than theirs.

"…Hello." I said, my words seemed a little slurred, and I didn't know why. "What's happening?" I felt really out of it and really, um, sort of heavy.

"Don't push yourself too hard, you've still got some of the anesthetic in you. It's this liquidy stuff that knocks you out and makes everything sort of blurred and heavy. I don't quite get it myself, but you're going to be feeling sluggish for a while."

"What…?" I asked weakly. I was… I had no idea what Emerald was talking about… liquid stuff that knocks you out? Like a medicine or potion or something? What kind of weird magic was this… it made everything difficult, I felt heavy and did not know why. I couldn't grasp the concept very well, but that was because I was tired? I wasn't tired though. I didn't feel tired I just didn't have any energy.

"Poor guy." Emerald said, she almost seemed to be mocking him, with her crisp and clear thinking and her nice outfit. She looked like she belonged here, no matter what was actually going on here, and I still wasn't convinced she was real, completely, she belonged here more than I did. I thought, perhaps… could this be a hallucination too, part of the affliction. And, what was she doing, looking at me like that? Was that pity? How dare she pity me. I felt like she was about to turn on me any second. There were so many ways to betray me here. Here I was in a place, tied up, no idea where I was. If she had the mind to, she could dispose of me right here and sacrifice me to her own power.

I didn't think we could do anything about this. I didn't want to play her game, I didn't want to play anymore, I just wanted to go home. Emerald would not take me home, so I had to find my own way there.

I was really out of it, like really out of it. I shook my head, trying once again to fill my head with clear thought and clear it from this nonsense and confusion about the situation going on here, about… I didn't know what I was talking about. I just wanted to get untied.

"Untie me." I said simply. Of course, it wouldn't be that easy, things were never that easy, not for me, at least. Emerald looked up. I couldn't tell what she was looking at, up at the mast where she came from, maybe. Then she sighed. A sigh at a simple request was never a good sign.

"I can't right now." She said, frowning. Of course she was, and now I would have to, I dunno, promise to stay here forever and be nice and stuff. And what would she do to me if I refused? Had I underestimated her character, or, rather overestimated her.

"Why not…?" I asked.

"She won't let me yet, not until she is sure that you aren't a threat to the crew."

"The… crew?" I asked.

"They're all below deck." Emerald said, still frowning. "I told her you were fine, but she wants to make sure of that for herself. It's something I can respect, wanting to make sure of the safety of the crew."

"The crew." I stated this time, trying to comprehend. There were others, that was what this meant. There were other people on the ship, all below deck because they feared me for some reason. Sure, I was a large dragon, but they sounded like they had numbers on their side. And besides, if they knew Emerald well enough to give her a brand new outfit, they should have known that she did not have strong magic, which meant I was not strong either. They should have figured that out, so surely they would have known I was not actually that big of a threat. If they thought about it for a second, they would come to that conclusion.

So… why was I here? Maybe it was… so I could not fly away? I struggled a little, squirmed against the ropes. Whoever tied this really knew what they were doing. Having whatever this was coursing through my veins didn't help, either.

"Yeah. I can go get her, so we can get you out of those ropes, like me. What do you think? Feeling up to it?" She asked.

"Uh… who?" I asked in return.

"Wow, you really are out of it, huh?" Emerald giggled. Mocking me still, huh? Always mocking me… "The captain, remember. I'm pretty sure we just went over this. Although, I was kind of this loopy when I woke up, huh? There's a lot we can learn out here…" Emerald seemed lost in thought for a moment, and the old coot wasn't around to whack her on the head, back to reality, and I certainly couldn't do anything about it when she got lost in her own little world. He was right about her. Her biggest obstacle was that she completely lacked concentration. Well, that was one of many flaws, one of many obstacles to her mastering magic. Though, seemed there was more to magic than I once thought, at least in this world. I could not help but wonder if magic in her world and magic in my world were different, any. To be honest, I had never paid much attention to magic in my own word. It wasn't something I deliberately avoided, it just wasn't very important to me.

Haha, look at me, going on a tangent of my own. I was really no better than her, was I? I was no better… we were both helpless, huh? Tossed on the… or the sky, in this case. So, I refocused, with some significant effort on my part, to place my focus once again on Emerald. I looked at her outfit, trying to latch on to something to anchor myself to reality. She was in a puffy of-white shirt and a brilliantly green coat, boots, nice leather boots. I had only seen her in a dress before, and now she was in pants and a shirt. I had to say, this suited her more. Something about her outfit looked very… right. She had hair all tied up, too, with a plain white cloth. This was a lot more fitting for her than the princess outfit. She looked a lot more comfortable in it, too.

"Well… are you going to get the captain or not?" I asked. My words still slurred a bit, and my voice lacked the edge I wished for it to have. My authority was all but gone. Anyone looking at me would never believe I was in line to be a king.

"Right. I'll go get her." Emerald said, after what seemed like a rather long time. Was she pausing more than usual, or was my brain processing things slower? Who could say, who could say… I blinked slowly. She studied me, again with that sickening look of pity, like she was looking at a small hurt pet.

"No need, I'm here." Wait what? I heard a voice off to the side. As fast as I could, I swung my head around to see another lady in a similar outfit to Emerald's, although the color was much more tame, somewhere between red and brown, a sort of rusty color. She also seemed much more assured of herself. She didn't have to do a single thing to impress anyone. In fact, she wasn't even trying to impress, and that, in and of itself, was impressive. She just… exuded confidence. She seemed, to me, at a glance, to be everything Emerald was not, the kind of person I had wanted to have as my princess all along. But, that was just at a glance. I could have been wrong, I had no idea.

Then there was the other question… where did she come from and how did she get there so fast? Had she been listening in? If so, where from? Had she jumped down from that same place Emerald had, or come up from below the deck where the rest of the crew supposedly was. Had she been listening? It wasn't like there was a whole lot to listen to, what with my sluggish brain and her vague responses. That conversation had been going nowhere. Maybe this captain could liven things up around here. Or at least she would explain what was going on around here.

"Who are you…?" I asked, and the captain chuckled.

"I am the captain of this ship. My name is Jesse. And who are you?" She asked.

"Ray." I answered simply.

"I've been told you are Emerald's familiar. Yes?" The captain said.

"Yes…" I said, cautiously, and with the littlest bit of a grudge. I did not like being called a familiar. It sounded like a pet, it made it sound like I was lower than her. In this world, or in the capital at least, we were treated as second class, attachments to our human partners. I would not blindly follow Emerald. I had my own things to be doing.

"Ah, perhaps you don't like that term? My apologies." The captain said. What, did she see that? She was a perceptive one, it seemed. More perceptive than Emerald, it would seem. I already liked this lady more than Emerald. The feeling I got from her, she didn't pretend to be something she wasn't. She was what I saw… I wasn't exactly sure what I was seeing, though. Something sharp and free, like a blade swooshing through the air. I glanced at her belt, she actually did have a sword. The hilt glinted dangerously at me. Her eyes dangerously glinted at me. And this was her normal state of being, I was pretty sure, she wasn't actually trying to intimidate me. At least, I assumed that was the case. She would have no need to intimidate me, I was already tied up and useless. There was no need to put in the effort, so this must have just been natural for her.

"So… what is it you want?" I asked, I could feel my mind coming out of the fog, coming back to my normal self. Whatever it was that had happened to me, that anesthetic thing that Emerald mentioned seemed to be wearing off.

"I just want to see if you are a threat… I have my crew to think about, you know? Emerald says you are just fine, but I have my doubts. So, tell me about yourself." She commanded.

"Tell you about yourself? Like… what?" I still felt like I couldn't think completely clearly. What was it exactly she wanted? What was it I wanted? I felt like I was losing it.

"Like, you know, how you came to be here."

"You guys hit me over the head and knocked me out." I said bitterly, cutting her off. She looked a little taken aback, but recovered quickly.

"Right, my apologies. I did not command such cruel methods. My second in command acted without my consent. He can be a little… rough, along the edges." So it wasn't this woman, but someone else. That made sense, she didn't look like she was strong enough to knock me out. That wasn't meant to be an insult to her strength, I was just particularly hardy. My skull was rather thick. I was supposed to be able to break up meteorites. So, whoever that guy was, it was clear he was a very strong guy.

"Why did you take me out of the sky?" I asked.

"You were in our territory. The rest doesn't matter." She said simply. What was her territory? Just… the sky? Was the entire sky their territory, then how was I supposed to stay out of their territory? Something told me she was withholding information.

"I was flying, following a teacher for Emerald, an old man." I started to explain.

"The old man below deck we found a few miles away. I assume." The captain said, turning towards Emerald, who nodded. She nodded back and turned towards me again. The old man was below deck, too? Then, Strider and Flygon were probably here, too. Where was Flygon? He was about the same size as me, and the same danger level, more or less, in their estimation, I assumed. Humans seemed to think we were dangerous. Well, we were stronger than them. Still, where was he? Was he tied up somewhere too?

"Where is the Flygon?" I asked. I cared more about him right now, you needed to look out for your own, didn't you? Not that he was my own, but… I had warmer feelings towards Pokemon than I did towards humans, let us just leave it at that.

"Down below as well. You can go check all you like in a few moments… if I deem you safe, that is."

"Why wouldn't I be safe?!" I demanded. I was seething, and I didn't know why. I struggled against the ropes, again.

"You aren't helping your cause right now, Ray." Emerald frowned. It pissed me off, but she was right, I was not making myself seem safe right now, and they had the power right now. Captain Jesse had the power. And I was thrashing about… I would not apologize for it, though. Still, I didn't understand why she thought right off the bat that I was dangerous, before I even woke up, before I even spoke a word. Did Emerald tell her that I was dangerous? What did the two of them talk about?

"Are you in control of yourself?" The captain asked. It was a simple question, and my immediate, gut reaction was to answer yes, of course I was in control of myself. But, for some reason the question caught me off guard.

"Yes." I said. But, then I looked back at what had happened to me, there were times when I had thoughts that were not my own… and then there was that shadow of myself. When my mind wandered and did all sorts of weird things, was that… was that him thinking it? Not me? And, if that was true… I guess I could understand why she was so cautious of me. I would be cautious of me, too. Was that what was happening? Was that what this affliction was? But I got rid of most of it. That shadow, even if it was still around, should not have been able to control me. I got rid of a lot of it, didn't I? He wasn't strong enough. Still, I understood, if that was the case, I understood why she was so concerned about me being here. Emerald had given me a shining review, but that didn't matter if at any point I wasn't the person in control of this body.

"Are you sure… all the time?" The captain said, glancing from me to Emerald. I paused for a moment. I guessed the answer was.

"No, I guess I can't be sure… not all the time. Who can be really? Especially if memory is distorted by that sort of thing. Who's to say who's ever in control, if that's the case?" I spouted out. I wasn't entirely sure where that came from. That in and of itself was very concerning. The captain and Emerald were both staring at me.

"You are talking like you were back there in that world." Emerald said, rather concerned. Why was she concerned about me? Why did she even act like she cared about me? She only wanted me safe so that she could turn around and use my powers to magnify her own. She really was no better than the rest of her family, no better than that dark court she claimed to be fighting. Maybe she would merely deliver me to them. Not if I had anything to say about it, not if I-

That world, that world… the city of blood, the jungle of stone, meshed together… our twin hells, the inside of my mind, of my heart. I didn't quite understand. In fact, I still couldn't reconcile the fact that I had actually been there. I had actually… been inside my mind and heart, and it was terrifying, and so was Emerald's. Or maybe, we delved into our own souls? That could be why they were so intricately connected, and why one had sort of phased into the other. There was no real way to know where my soul ended and hers began, what with this tether… it was truly a union, a bonding, and I was bound… bound to her.

"That world, huh?" I asked. "That was an interesting time, hm?"

"You're telling me…" Emerald said.

"Emerald told me about your trial of the affliction, how she passed… and how you did not. That is why I doubt your word. You are no longer pure, even if you think you are. You pose a threat, even if you do not mean to, because you are not predictable." Captain Jesse said. I frowned. That was not the thing you wanted someone to tell to your face. That was not the kind of thing someone just said to your face. I was not used to being talked to in this way. I used to be a part of the royal family… I was about to be part of the royal family. I was technically part of the royal family here, but the princess was an outcast to begin with, and now we were on the run. This was not the life I wanted. This was not the life I deserved.

"I see." I glared at her. She had told the captain about that, she had told the captain that I had failed my test. Well, I guess I could understand that kind of thing, especially if the captain gave her the save treatment she gave me. If that was the case, I suppose she couldn't have helped but to confess anything the captain wanted to hear. Then I turned back to the captain. "Yes, I failed the trial. That version of myself that told me to steal her life is still inside of me, and told me he would be back. I suppose that means I am dangerous. So, I guess I get to stay tied up forever?"

"Eh, if he gets out of hand I'll just give him another knock on the head. He seemed to go down easy enough." I heard a new voice, a gruff voice. Emerald flinched a little. I looked over in the direction of the voice to see who it was. I saw a burly man with unruly orange hair and a huge beard. Who was that…? Knock on the head? Was this the guy that knocked me out?

"Ah, James, nice of you to join us. Emerald, I believe you have met. Ray, this is my first mate, James. He tipped his hat to us.

* * *

 **Hope y'all have an awesome day!**


	32. You Heard Me, Sky Pirates

**Emerald's POV**

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Yep, I had met this guy, alight. This was the guy that looked me in the eyes and knocked me out. He apologized for it afterwards, once I woke up and the captain questioned me. She asked me more or less the same questions she had been fixing to ask Ray before we got into this whole trial of affliction thing, just stuff about my background. I told her I was a princess, which, surprisingly, she did not know. I told her about my struggle to learn any magic, and then when I finally did get my companion, how it turned out all horribly wrong. It was all so horribly horribly wrong… my family, the dark court… doing horrible things under everyone's noses, meeting in secret, getting rid of people in order to further their own power.

And then I met James, and like I said, he apologized for punching me in the head. He was a pretty nice guy, as far as I could tell. I still wasn't entirely sure why they picked us up. When I asked, she avoided the question. It was something I wanted to know, something I needed to know. I didn't think we were in a whole lot of trouble with these guys. In fact, they could protect us from the members of the dark court. Or… they were members of the court, acting friendly to gain our trust, only to betray us and turn us in to be executed. They could have… seen the wanted poster of us, could be in it for the reward. That sounded like something pirates would do. But if they were really going to do that, why then make me a part of the crew, or had the captain changed her mind now that I had impressed her or tickled her fancy or something like that.

There was too much about this situation I did not know, and it made me very uncomfortable. I knew what Ray thought of me, at least. He wasn't friendly, but he was a familiar kind of unfriendly. This was… unpredictable. I was in an unpredictable situation. Well, if I wanted a predictable situation, I shouldn't have left the castle, shouldn't have left the capital. If I just stayed and did my princess duty as I was supposed to, lay low and did not question, nothing strange would have happened, and I would be peaceful and trapped and still at odds with Ray. Either way, I would be unfulfilled, withering, like some sort of weird jeweled flower, emerald encrusted.

I saw Ray all tied up and I felt really bad for him. He looked so, sort of weak all tied up and stuff. I asked that he be released, but then Jesse told me why she thought that might not be the best idea. He wasn't entirely himself anymore. I didn't want to agree with her, but it was something I had sensed a few times from him, that something was invariably wrong. Something was wrong with me, too, something different, though. I couldn't tell what it was, and maybe it was actually nothing. I couldn't know for sure. That was the thing, I couldn't know, and I couldn't know about him either. Anyways… it was no use to think about this stuff now. The crisp air here cleared my senses, it seemed. I really felt like I was meant to be here. Something about the surroundings… something about the aesthetics… this was exactly what I had imagined when I dreamed about adventuring across the world… and that was why I was wary. This was a little too perfect, a little too right out of my imagination. And so, I thought, perhaps, there was some trickery to this, some illusion. Maybe this was pulled right out of my imagination, and this was another world meant to trap me. Maybe I never got out of the old world with the bloody city. Maybe my escape was also an illusion.

But, all this speculation was meaningless. If there was a way to break out of the illusion, if it was in fact an illusion, I had no idea how to do it. In the meantime, at least Jesse and James seemed nice. They were definitely rough around the edges, as any good pirate should be, but they didn't seem, well, evil. They weren't just going to kill for fun. They were at least as good as Strider. That wasn't saying a whole lot. I decided to settle on… I was safer here with these guys than I was with the dark court or their minions. I was convinced these guys did not work for the dark court. They were the ruling body, and they had power on their side. From what I had seen of this world, I doubted anyone with that kind of power and authority would bother to put on an act. They could just overpower us. They didn't need to resort to any sort of trickery, unless they just felt like messing with us for their own sick sort of pleasure. Really, who could say? I honestly wouldn't have been surprised to find out anything at this point. I would just… be cautious of everything for now, and take things as they came to me.

"Knock me out?" Ray asked. He still sounded a little slow. They had some sort of weird magic that… wasn't magic? Something about medicine? That was the word Jesse had used, medicine, or drugs. I had no idea what that was, I had never heard of it before this. When I had explained that to her, she compared it to healing magic, but instead of using your own energy, or the energy of nature around you, you took aspects of nature itself and manipulated it in such a way that it bent to the will of humanity. Nature bowing to the will of humanity. That… something about that idea deeply disturbed me. Nature was… nature was supposed to be the most powerful, the world around us, that was what was able to grant us our power.

"Yeah, course, if you start getting dangerous to our crew. Can't have you hurting anyone, even the princess." He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. "Especially not the princess." He said in his husky voice. Heh… why was he doing that? Why was he looking at me like that? He didn't… like me, did he? No, no, I hoped not. And if he did, I hoped he didn't expect anything out of it. He was way too old for me and I had no interest in him like that, and I doubted I ever would. Uh… Strider.

Strider was below deck. He had supposedly had some sort of interrogation, like me, like mine, and had been let out of his chains after the captain decided he would not be a threat. He was an assassin, and nobody on this ship was on his list, so they were in no danger. Although, they were still cautious about him, because it seemed he was also a well known thief, better known for that than for his assassination skills. He had apparently stolen several important artifacts from the royalty. It was even possible he had been in the capital before without my knowledge. That… that was impressive. It took me my entire life to find a way out of the kingdom, eh, the capital, and Strider apparently made it in, even with his goofy clothing, stole something from underneath everyone's nose, and then made it out. He was a very impressive kind of guy.

"Alright, so you'll beat me up if I start hurting people. Can you untie me, then?" Ray asked, an irritated look on his face. Huh… he was coming to, his thoughts moving fast now, back to his usual grumpy self, huh?

"Sure, then." The captain said, then glanced over at James. "Go ahead. You get to keep an eye on him, though." Jesse smirked. James smiled back good-naturedly. Then he went back to the column and began to carefully untie the ropes that bound Ray. They slowly came undone, until Ray could slither loose. It didn't take a whole lot of loosening for Ray to be able to do that, though, he was so slender and flexible. I wondered just how many bones he had to have in his spine to be able to move like that. Or, did he have bones for a spine at all, maybe it was cartilage or something? I didn't know. I never bothered to study the anatomy of legends. Some of my sisters did, but I didn't have time to after I got Ray before we had to run away. The legends were supposed to more or less be able to take care of themselves, and so were us princesses. I was supposed to be way more self sufficient than I was, especially at my age. Once he was free, he tried to fly away, but he did not get very far. The tether had shortened again, from when James pulled us back up… that was what he had actually been doing to pull us up, shorten the tether. And lengthening it was something Ray could not do himself. And I wanted to stay here. James laughed, a full, belly laugh. It seemed his whole body jiggled with amusement at Ray's expense.

"Ah, the caged bird, freed, attempts to fly away, to find a slightly bigger cage… or something like that." James said, wiping a tear from his eye from the laughter. He was a bit of a poetic one, huh? Well, one utterance does not a demeanor make. Something about him felt like a dad, or a big brother, or maybe some sort of uncle? Or maybe he wasn't family at all, and I was just trying to replace father figures because my own dad was ruined for me, and wasn't a super great father figure in the first place, actually. Maybe I was just trying to latch on to someone and someplace to be home, but I really liked it on this ship, just being here, just standing here felt right to me. This outfit, this backdrop, everything was right. And… that could mean it was very very wrong. I had no idea. I would definitely enjoy my time here, though.

"What are you talking about?!" Ray demanded.

"He's talking about you. Even when you're free of your ropes, you're still bound by your tether. Afraid you are staying here, for the time being.

"Why did you take us?!" Ray demanded… again. The captain and James just looked at Ray as if they were looking at a small child who needed everything spoon fed to him and missed the obvious. The captain shook her head a little. "What?"

"None of your business, lad. Anyways, I'll go let the others back up, captain." James said.

"Very good. I'll be making my rounds. After you've let out the crew, please attend to our guests." Jesse said.

"Aye." Answered James. They seemed like they had been together for a long time. They seemed… really in sync, it was sort of impressive. They must have been close. It seemed nice, their relationship, wholesome. That was just my feeling from it, though. The two of them walked off, just walked off, turned their backs to us and walked off. Did they… trust us, or something? Or, did they just know we had nowhere to go. Ray looked to the two of them, then, when he realized they were leaving, he physically relaxed some. As if their eyes were a burden on him, as if their presence alone stressed him out. I suppose it wouldn't have surprised me if that were in fact the case. He stretched out for a few moments, every which way he possibly could. He was… amazingly flexible. I would say I wished I could be that flexible, but that was a biological impossibility. Humans just weren't built for that, the only way I could do that was if something was terribly wrong.

"Get on." Ray said in a hushed whisper as he finished stretching. He gestured with his head for me to get on his back. Oh, I got it. Since the tether was short again, and he wanted off this ship, the only way to do that was to keep me on him. I wasn't about to leave, though. There was no way I was about to leave, this place was too perfect. Maybe this was why he didn't like me? Was this selfish of me? To stay on a dangerous ship because I thought it was cool, to go out in the dangerous world because I thought it was cool, and dragging him with me. Huh… that probably was why he was so miffed, wasn't it. I um… If I was going to appease Ray, was I going to have to do that thing Lilly told me about… be a good leader… compromise… but, this ship was amazing, and I was sure there were awesome things I could learn here, things that would make both of us stronger… and if they had something that was a substitute for healing magic… maybe they would have something that was a substitute to other kinds of magic. And then maybe I could master that and let Ray go home… I did feel bad, keeping him away from his loved ones and his life and everything that ever mattered to him. It wasn't that I didn't care, and it wasn't that I didn't understand. I just, I couldn't do it. I couldn't give it up, I couldn't give up what I worked my entire life for.

But, if there was a substitute, so that I didn't need Ray… if I could fly on my own, defend myself… anything I might want to do by myself, if I could do that with a substitute for magic. If I could learn… I would let him go, no problem. Eh, well, not no problem. In a weird way, I had bonded Ray, and I sort of didn't want to see him go. In his way, his grumpy nature, his drive to go back. I really admired that more than any of his other traits, his drive. I felt like we had that in common. He had this willingness to do what it took to get his goals. Really, we weren't all that different, although I doubted he would say the same.

"There are things to learn here. I think we should stay for a while." I said. He gave me a stink eye. What, just because I didn't do exactly what he wanted? I was doing this for him, too.

"You just like that outfit." He said, I didn't know how much he was kidding, but it seemed at least a little tongue and cheek, at least a little. Maybe that was just in my imagination. Maybe I was just trying to make him more friendly and relatable than he was. I didn't know. I didn't know anything. That was ok, though. I could… I would learn.

"You caught me." I chuckled. Playing along was pretty fun, and being a pirate would be pretty fun too, I couldn't deny that. There was something so romantic about being a pirate, being an adventurer, a pirate on the seven… uh… skies, I guessed? Was that even a thing? The endless sky, maybe. "I'm sorry, we'll talk about it later, ok? There are others coming, and the captain said you might not remember a lot of things that happen right now, and I might not either, er, but I think it wore off for me, more or less. I feel pretty much back to normal. A little light headed, maybe, but I think I'll remember this just fine. You, maybe not. Not sure how that stuff works. Jesse said she would take me down to the medic and have the practitioners there explain it to me."

"Uh… ok." He said. Yep, just as I thought, he was still pretty out of it. James went over to the stairs that led to the lower decks and went down them, and after a moment, more people started filling the deck. All of them looked at us. Had they… not seen us before? I hadn't seen them, but I thought for sure they had seen us. Were Jesse and James the only people on deck when we showed up? They seemed, uh… fascinated, like they hadn't seen something like us before, or were trying to evaluate us? After a few moments, though, they dispersed and went about their business, doing whatever it was sailors did to keep a ship running. There were ropes and sheets of cloth and… I had no idea what was going on. Some were just patrolling.

"So… seems like we're free to move about the deck. Anything you want to do?" I asked, then, without skipping a beat, I answered my own question. "Let me guess, get off the ship?" I said, chuckling. Ray raised an eyebrow.

"You guessed it." Ray seemed pretty amused as well. Good, I thought he might get irritated. He wasn't exactly the most predictable when it came to… me… I wasn't sure what he felt about me sometimes. Like, obviously he wasn't a big fan of me with the whole, not letting him go home thing, but then sometimes he would be friendly with me, and really nice… like we were good friends… like he forgot for a while that he wasn't actually supposed to like me.

"No, no, but I have an idea, but we have to stay here. There's something here, something that isn't magic, but it acts like magic. That stuff they put into our body, that liquid… it isn't magic, Jesse told me. They're going to show us down to the medical bay to explain. If I can learn to do the things magic can do… I could send you back and still be able to live my life… and, well, maybe things wouldn't be so bad. I mean… I'm already sort of an outcast now, and it turns out that the thing I was chasing after demands a ton of horrible sacrifice to actually get any good at…" I trailed off. The old coot. He didn't have any magic, but he sure knew an awful lot… he must have known what it took to be good at magic. Was he going to tell me to sacrifice others for the sake of my power? Or… was there another way I did not know of. Maybe all of that stuff, that dark power… maybe it was all just a cruel shortcut? I did not know what this revelation meant, if, in fact, it meant anything at all.

I was about to continue talking, when the doors to the lower deck swung open, and a few dozen pirates bumbled out. Time to meet the crew, I guessed.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day**


	33. Ok, Fine, Sky Pirates

**Ray's POV**

* * *

James was the last of them to come up on the deck. He was having a hearty laugh with a crew member. The crew were of all sort of shapes and sizes, short, tall, thin, fat, and all manners of skin tone, all sorts of backgrounds, different colored hairs. I could understand why Emerald thought she could fit in in a place like this. The rest of them looked about as eccentric as she was. They looked like they were all about adventure, too. Why else would they be flying around on a giant ship? It was excessive and probably took a whole lot of maintenance to keep this thing up in the sky. Also, there were way more other, more efficient ways to get a large group of people through the sky. The only reason they had to make it a pirate ship was that they wanted the aesthetics that came with it. And apparently, they had enough excess material to give Emerald her own bright green coat. Come to think of it, her coat was a whole lot brighter than any of the other crew member's clothing. It was the brightest color here, besides other people's hair, perhaps.

"Aye, and a good job of it too, boy!" James said. His voice was rather… booming, and so I could hear him over any of the other people there. He was a pretty loud guy in more ways than one. But, at least, he seemed friendly… when he wasn't covering your head with a bag and punching you in the head and putting some not magic… magic-like stuff into your body so you were all loopy and unable to talk and think properly. Wait… why was I giving him the benefit of the doubt or something… why was I saying anything good about the guy? Was it some sort of justification? But, no, that didn't make any sense. Why would I do that? I had no reason to defend him. Good guy or not, he had kidnapped us. He was not our friend, no matter how much he might act like it. He lost the chance to be friends a while ago.

"Thanks, mate. I know this is going to make a difference. Turn the tides, so to speak." The guy James was talking to was rather frail in comparison, in a suit of some sort, but it looked a lot more stiff and angled than the kind of suits I was used to seeing. It was almost like… this wasn't made by a person, whether by hand or by magic… I didn't know what could have done it, then. Maybe it was more of this magic not magic thing. I didn't quite get it. I just knew I had never heard of anything like this before, heard of nothing like a liquid they put in you to make you sleep. This was… a strange world indeed.

"Oh, hello there, hope you are making yourselves comfortable here on the ship. Drage, we'll continue this discussion later. You are dismissed. Go on." He laughed heartily and slapped the human, I guessed his name was Drage… on the back. Drage rubbed his own back, seemed that the slap was a little too much for him, just a bit too much for the frail little man. Well, all humans were frail compared to me… I didn't really mean that, it was just some funny mock superiority thing that flitted through my head. When it came to pure strength, honestly, I was pretty sure James could take me, wrap his arms around me, and snap my spine. That was a scary thought, hm? But, anyways, Drage walked off, he didn't seem too off put or even surprised by James's actions. Seemed this was something he did often. I wondered if any of the crew had bruises on their backs from the first mate's friendliness.

"We are, very much so!" Emerald said brightly. She seemed to sense very little danger in this man, but maybe she was just so eager to hang on to an authority figure, she just accepted this guy. I couldn't really tell her not to do it, if I did something like that, it would be like assuming I was in charge of her. If I did that, I would very much be a hypocrite. I didn't want her getting any ideas that she was in charge of me, and I wasn't going to be in charge of her, either.

"Speak for yourself," I said. Emerald looked at me, paused for a moment, and then said, with the exact same amount of enthusiasm as before.

"I am, very much so!" She smiled, just to make a point of it, I guessed.

"And you, boy?" James asked. I decided to let it go, even though I was slightly insulted by being called boy. I was no boy, a boy was young, inexperienced, innocent. Although a man wasn't really the right word for me either, was it? I was… I didn't know what the right word was per se, but it definitely was not boy. But, like I said, I let it go… out loud, at least.

"I'd like to get off this ship and go home, but Emerald seems to think you can teach her an alternative to magic that would let her send me home. Is that true?" I asked. I attempted to give him a look that conveyed to him that I had no intention of letting him blow this off or laughing it off with his good natured boisterous act. I knew it was that, an act. I knew he couldn't just be a friendly guy. He kidnapped us. Well, why was I acting like it was just him, he was just the muscle. It was probably that captain that commanded him to do it. This whole crew, acting like nothing was happening. I could feel their eyes on me. I could feel them-

"Aye, of course it is, and I'd be glad to show ya to the medical bay to learn more. You will also find your friends there." James said. The crew sort of looked at us, some of them did… some of them acted like we weren't even there. I could understand that. They were just trying to keep this ship afloat, just going about and doing their job. I felt this same feeling from people in the palace back home before, they were just trying to do their job, look out for each other, serve without getting served themselves.

I… wondered what Meliae would do in a situation like this, probably orchestrate some grand celebration for a crew like this, or perhaps learn about them and make a small personalized gift for everyone, and hand them out in private. It honestly depended on the day for her. Sometimes she had it in her to make big plans and lofty goals, and sometimes she just needed to make things simple for herself and others. She was so good at having this… simple and easy energy to her that you could not help but love, and then there was that spark of enthusiasm. She would have made a great queen… she was still going to make a great queen. I couldn't delude myself, just because I left didn't mean she was going to pause her life. The kingdom had gone on after other chosen ones had left to do their duty, and it would go on without me. She still had her duty to either take the throne herself or choose a mate and be queen…Well, she would be queen no matter what, and she would be a magnificent queen, the best queen… with or without me… I was on a timer here. If someone else took the throne, if someone else took Mel… then I would be out of luck, and there wouldn't be a place for me anywhere.

"Why did you take us?" I asked. The captain didn't answer, but maybe the first mate didn't know any better, he did sort of look like the type who… did not have all his marbles in order. I was pretty sure he wasn't the smartest person around. Maybe he would answer, maybe he wouldn't know it was supposed to be a secret or something? Unfortunately, James only offered a shrug before he turned slowly and, with heavy footsteps, headed back towards the stairs leading below deck. Was something wrong with him? Such heavy feet… his weight wasn't enough for him to have to step that heavily, and besides, he hadn't been doing this before. Was it a signal or something? Were we going to be taken down? I really could not say what was going on, and it was bothering me. I liked to know what was going on in the world around me. That was something everyone wanted, right? It was not an unreasonable request, right? To know what was going on here.

"You'll find out in due time." James said with a genuine… somewhat pitying smile. Again with that stupid smile, that stupid look, looking at me like I was some poor thing that couldn't take care of myself, that couldn't… I was getting far too riled up. We would get off the ship, I would get back to my world, one way or another. I would get out, I would escape, I was determined to escape. I wanted to punch the living daylights out of him. I could see him glare at me, suspicion in his eyes, in his sneer, in the slight growl that escaped from his lip. Oh, I was doing it again, wasn't I? I was… I was letting that shadow of myself guide my thinking It was a stupid thing to do, a stupid, stupid thing to do… but, it was had to stop because I didn't really know when it was starting. All I could do was try to catch when my thinking seemed like it wasn't my own or when people around me started glaring at me. That would be a cue to get a hold of myself. That would be good, a good way for me to remember, when someone looked like they were about to hit me, that was probably when I had to keep a cap on these dark and bad and rambling thoughts of mine. I did it now. See, I could control myself.

"Why the secret?" I asked.

"It isn't a secret. This just isn't the time or place to talk about it." At least we were getting a better chance at an answer here than we had been getting with the captain. That lady was definitely a woman of few words, which wasn't terribly convenient for me when it came to getting information, although it was rater refreshing not to have someone going on and on, like I was now in my thoughts. This was stupid, this whole thing was stupid. Why in the world did I ever agree to come here? The beacon did not make you go anywhere, it only showed the way to the other dimension. I came here of my own volition… although, I went driven by duty… and driven by Mel. She had insisted I go. Why did she want me to leave? Or, did she? Was she just so marred by duty that she had to forsake love in order to uphold it? That made sense… I supposed, she as a princess after all. They were groomed from birth to do their duty for their kingdom… of course she expected me to do the same. Of course she did, she didn't really know anything else, did she. Love could not prevail over duty. I… could not accept that. Did she love someone else? Was that why she was willing enough to let me go?

"Look who's zoning out now, hehe." Emerald said, teasing me. Why did she feel like we were close enough that she could tease me constantly, or that I could tease her? I was pretty sure, despite myself… we were growing closer. It wasn't something I wanted to happen, and certainly something I wasn't putting any actual effort into. It was just… you couldn't help but get close to people you spent so much time with, the person who shared your very soul with you. We technically only had one soul between the two of us, it was one soul, although almost entirely separated.

"Shut up, would you." I said, I wasn't entirely serious, though. I probably wasn't helping with the whole teasing her like a little sister thing. I had never had siblings before… that was something I always dreamed of when I found out I was a chosen one, to be like a big brother to the princess. I supposed I still could be, now that I was here, although if I had the choice, I would go home in a second, but while I was here… I could cross a dream off the list. No, no, why was I trying to make the best out of this situation, why was I trying to do this? I would gain nothing from that. I would only become complacent. I had to sacrifice good in order to achieve something great and earn my way back home, where someone incredible was waiting, and a kingdom to greet me.

But what if they all just moved on, found another monarch. There was no doubt they would. Why did that idea bother me so much? The world had to go on, the kingdom had to go on, whether I was there or not. If that was the case… did anyone truly matter in the long run? Or did the world just always move on, someone else could do your job, and so, although people are sad you are gone, things still end up going on, business as usual. Everything as usual. It didn't matter if I went back or not. But… but I wanted to get back. It didn't matter to me if they did not need me, I needed them. I was dying here… on the inside. I hated it here, I really did.

"Why so morose?" Emerald asked. I gave her a look, she knew why. It was the same thing I had been 'morose' about this entire time. No, I would not stop, and no, this was not something I could just get over. I really didn't feel like saying that again, so I tried to convey all this in a look. Honestly, that might have taken just as much, if not more effort. James cleared his throat awkwardly, looking between the two of us.

"Hows about we go down below now. I will give ya the grand tour, with the medical bay and all. An' then you can meet back up with your buddies there." James was back to that bravado, he was proud of his post here. At least it was better than that stupid pitying look. Anything was better than pity. I wanted none of it.

"Yes!" Emerald clapped her hands in excitement.

"Our buddies?" I asked. "You mean Strider and Flygon and the Old Coot? Are they on the ship with us?"

"Picked em up about the same time as you. They were feistier than you guys." James said with a good natured chuckle.

"They were here the whole time? Why didn't you say so earlier?" That would have been good to know, I thought. I was sure they had some grand reason, some real purpose to it-

"Sorry, forgot to mention it." James said, running his hand through his rather… I had to admit… magnificent beard. It was bigger and bushier than any I had ever seen. Now, the bar wasn't very high for me, I had not seen many humans, but still… Anyways, anyways, he didn't have some grand plan, he just forgot. Nice to know the caliber of the crew keeping this thing up in the air. Or maybe that was too harsh. He had a lot going on, it sounded like, still, that was rather relevant information that he just left out…

"Ok, let's go!" Emerald was way too excited in this situation. Did she not understand her life was in danger? Did she not understand my life was in danger? Did she not understand that we had been kidnapped? Because that was what happened, we were beaten and kidnapped and trapped here on this ship with pirates. It didn't matter how friendly they seemed, they were dangerous. The captain pulled a sword on me. This was not something we could just ignore. But of course, Emerald was not going to say anything about this, wasn't going to listen to me, even if I explained things to her very simply and logically. So, what was the point? Might as well just… go along. Our tether was tight again, now. I wondered if Emerald knew how to lengthen it now and she just wasn't out of spite. That would serve me right, huh? Keep me nearby, imprisoned next to a stupid girl… and then, and then… and then nothing. I just had to stay there forever, forever with her, until, perhaps, she died, or I died, or we both were dead rotting corpses on the ground.

"Hey, stop it." I felt a gentle pat on the head. It was from Emerald, she was trying to knock me out of it. Well, I was glad for it. I… I was hopeless. I was absolutely hopeless. I needed to stick to my guns. I could not get comfortable here. I would not forgive myself in I got used to this, if I submitted. I would not submit to this treatment, to this life. I would not, I refused.

"Sorry…" I mumbled. Still, I knew deep down she was really only trying to help, it wasn't her fault she was an idiot, it wasn't her fault she couldn't do magic to save her own life… literally, if she could only use magic to defend herself, she would be dead within the day. If she didn't have me around, she probably would have been dead already, and at least she was aware of that, and she was trying to send me home, if she was able to get what she wanted. It was less than selfless of her. She only agreed to do something because I wouldn't stop complaining, and because there was a way for her to still get what she wanted. This was not an act of kindness, this was a contract.

"Alrighty then, all who's coming down, come on." James herded us all downstairs. There was a lot more stuff downstairs than there was upstairs, and more pirates down here too, just sort of hanging out. There were a bunch of rooms. I tried one or two of them, and they were locked. I could only imagine it was, like, the rooms of the pirates? I supposed they had to sleep somewhere, huh? Well, I guessed I couldn't steal from them or something. Not that I actually wanted to do that, it was just, you know, that option was closed off forever. I would have liked to see what exactly a pirate's living quarters looked like, and what was it like to live in such a small room in such close proximity to people. How could you stand it? All my life, I had had ample room in my living spaces. I needed it, I was a flying dragon, I needed to be able to stretch and fly at times. I did not do particularly well in the cramped spaces.

We walked past that. There were some pirates passed out on benches. They were very clearly drunk. They would wake up with a pretty bad hangover, huh? Yep, they were in for a bad time when they woke up. Not only did they have to deal with a normal hangover, but they also had to deal with the motion of this ship, constant motion. I wondered if they were used to this, the movement in the sky. Was it something you could ever really get used to? It must be something you get used to, people could get used to a lot of things, horrible things become trivial and normal, and it was disgusting.

There was what looked like a mess hall, an entertainment room, and the medical bay. Then, even lower, there was a power room that kept the whole thing together and in the air, a navigation room, and the captain's room… much lower than anyone else's. That must have been because the captain… wanted to be near the room that kept this thing afloat in the sky, despite how illogical a flying pirate ship sounded…

When we were done looking at all the rooms, taking the grand tour, we went back to the medical bay. We had not gone inside before, but now we did, and there they were, Strider and the Old Coot, sleeping on some beds among about a dozen or so other cots. They looked pretty fast asleep. I wondered if they were actually under the influence of that sleeping liquid, that, what was it called again anesthetic? What kind of a word was that? Why did they name it that, I wondered? Why do anything? Why… oh, but I was being nihilistic again. Was this the shadow's work? Hah, it would have to do a lot better than that to make me give up my body, my control. Mine.

I was just talking to myself, wasn't I? Even if the affliction was in there, there wasn't anyone in my head to talk to. We might have been able to communicate in that other world, but that was a world of the mind, a world of the soul, or uh, somewhere in between the two? I wasn't quite sure, but he was, it was inside me, but not in a place where it could communicate with me as is. If I wanted to talk and get an answer, I would have to go to him. I didn't really want to go to him, though, understandably enough. Maybe that was the attitude that made sure he stuck around. My subconscious mind did not want to confront him, and so it did not, and so it was still there… influencing my behavior. I… I would have to face off with him eventually, wouldn't I? Some awesome final battle, me against a dark version of myself. That had never been done before and would never be done again. Mine was an absolutely unique experience, truly.

I sighed. I guessed we would have to wait for them to wake up…

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	34. Where Do We Go From Here?

**Emerald's pov, enjoy!**

* * *

"Hey, beautiful…"

"Uh… I'm sorry, what?"

"You the gosh dern prettiest girl I ever laid eyes on, gorgeous…" Yep… I wasn't mistaken… Strider was talking to me. He was looked right at me and calling me beautiful. I, uh, my cheeks were a little more pink than usual… at the prospect… of that. He was being so forward with me. Why was he being so forward with me? This came a little out of left field, I thought. Did, did he mean it? He didn't seem like the type to lie about this sort of thing, but this was so sudden, he hadn't said anything like this before.

"Oh, thank you. You're pretty handsome yourself, Strider." I said, smiling at him… then realized what I said. I mean, sure, I felt it, but why was I also being so bold. I mean, it was one thing to be honest about feelings, but to come out and say it like that so that he could hear it and…

I could see Ray in the corner of my eye rolling his eyes. He thought this was ridiculous? Or maybe… he was jealous? Or maybe this was a huge slap in the face to him? He was about to be married when I called him to this world, and now I dared to even hint at a relationship in front of him. Well, I wasn't about to let Ray get in my way. I was, quite frankly, fascinated by Strider. I legitimately wanted to get to know him. If we were staying on this ship for a while, we would have plenty of time to do it, plenty of time to get to know each other. Ray was not about to stop me, not with this, not with anything.

"Strider… who's that? That's a cool sounding word. I like it lots…" His voice was different, a tiny bit slurred and his accent, or whatever it was, affectation was different than normal, stronger. It was more difficult to understand what he was saying. I could make do, of course, but it was a challenge.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm afraid you can't hold him accountable for anything he says right now. He's a little out of it, an effect of the anesthetic. This happens to people sometimes. It can be pretty funny, at times." An unknown voice spoke to me. I turned around to see a huge muscle bound man with a white apron and a kind smile, and tattoos everywhere. He was a dark skinned man. The markings on his skin looked like a bunch of abstract art. It looked pretty awesome. I wondered how I would look with tattoos. As a princess, we weren't supposed to, but let's face it, I was no longer a princess. I really wasn't. I never… really was, in name only, in name only… And now, not even in name. I was lost to the world, lost to my kingdom. And now I had been kidnapped by pirates… and now I had a new place to belong. At least, I thought I did. I would learn this substitute to magic and then send Ray home, and me and Strider could spend time together and learn more about each other… and adventure together and be in each other's arms, and…

I was getting a little carried away.

"You are awesome…" I said, still in awe at his tattoos. Seems this was the medic? Probably? He at least seemed to know something about this anesthetic stuff… I was really interested in how it worked. It had slowed down my brain itself, my thoughts. There wasn't a lot of magic that could directly affect the human mind, at least, not that I knew about. Now that I thought about it, there was probably a whole lot of magic techniques and types that I did not know about… Magic that may have required a lot more power than any of the normal magic needed. I didn't even have enough to do normal stuff… I didn't actually want to do it, but I wondered if I gave myself over to the dark lord guy… if that guy would even know how to make my magic powerful. It would be hilarious if he tried to amplify my power and just… I was so horrible at it that not even some all powerful force of evil could make me competent. That would just be the funniest thing. I was laughing so hard. Ray was going to yell at me from how hard I was laughing.

"Oh, thank you. I'm glad you think so." The medic scratched his head all self conscious and stuff. Was he not used to getting compliments? Did he not know how to take one? Or was he just that… bashful? Uh, what was the word I was looking for here… opposite of pride- HUMBLE! Or was he actually just that humble. I wouldn't have put it past him, even though I didn't know the guy. This ship, this crew, had that kind of feeling. Nobody had a huge ego, and that was refreshing, considering my old home was a literal castle with princesses, pretty much all thinking they were Arceus's gift to the world…

The medic didn't say anything else to me, but checked the other two. He put his hands on them, but then he also pulled out a few different weird things and like… used them on Strider and the old coot. He wrapped something around the old man's arm and squeezed a bulb thing. There were other things, too, just as incomprehensible to me. I wasn't really looking at them, even though I should have. My eyes were drawn to Strider. He was still in a daze, he was still smiling at me, this stupid smile, like a little kid looking at his favorite thing in the world.

I… I would have to wait to talk to him about this until he was in his right mind. He was an independent contracted guard for me. That was our relationship right now, even if I was quickly realizing I might have wanted it to be more than that… I needed to talk to him before we did anything to change that. For now, I would just… I would focus on the medic.

"We were told you would explain anesthetic and also some of the other things going around here like how the ship is staying in the air without magic." Ray asked. I was just about to ask that, I really was, but I guessed it wasn't fast enough for Ray's liking, and so he beat me to the punch, and was quite a bit ruder about it too. Oh, actually, I wasn't sure if it really counted as being rude, but I was going to say it in a way more curious way, because I was actually fascinated with what the answer might be. Ray just wanted the answer so he could get home already, or, get on the path to going home.

"It's medicine. Made from various plants and chemicals. What I did was inject you with it so it traveled through your veins and reached your brain. This particular medicine put you to sleep, but other medicines can do other things." He explained. He seemed happy to explain, like he didn't get to talk about this stuff very often, and it was clear he was fascinated with it all as well.

"Veins… so, the stuff that like… the stuff where my blood goes, other stuff can go in there too and affect my body like magic."

"The word you are looking for, is science. We are doing science here. Although, I suppose, to an outsider, it would be hard to tell the difference, huh? It isn't, though. Well… maybe it is, a little. It's like… long form magic."

"Long… form magic?" Ray asked. The medic inhaled, he was going to have a lot to say. Either that or he had this speech memorized because he was passionate about that. Science and magic… huh.

"Magic works by using outside power, energy, magnifying it inside your body, and then releasing it as something else. We gather nature too, gather information, observe from nature and from testing things, to see what affects what. We then take those observations, and use them to apply solutions to problems. So essentially we do the same thing as magic, take something on the outside, digest it, and regurgitate it as something we can apply in the real world. It's more or less the same. The only real difference, and I think that is what makes science better, is that when we're done, we understand exactly what is going on, because we actually went through possibilities until we get to what works, so we know how the anesthetic works and why it works and what doesn't work. The pros and cons of one method of solving a problem as opposed to another!" Even though he was a rather reserved seeming guy, he got pretty excited over this, didn't he?

"But it takes a whole lot longer, doesn't it?" Ray replied. "That was why you called it long form."

"Yes. And… sometimes, it does also require some sacrifice, like powerful magic. Sometimes a medicine goes wrong and hurts or even kills people… That is always quite sad and unfortunate. However, it does not require nearly the amount of sacrifice demanded of high level magic uses, and once we find out that a medicine is somehow dangerous for the general population, we take it away and destroy it, so as few people as possible are hurt. Magic, historically, is a selfish endeavor, sacrificing others for the benefit of the user to become strong… Science is for the people." He cleared his throat and blinked a few times, as if he had only just realized just how long he had gone on about magic and science. It was very helpful, though. I was pretty sure I understood now. "Sorry, sorry. I've gone on too long. I should really be attending these two. I may be a while. You two are free to move about the ship, meet the crew if you want, from what I heard from the captain, you'll be here a while."

Something about that sent a shiver down my spine, he said that so casually, that it sounded creepy, like they were going to be keeping us against our will in cages unable to get out or do anything… even though I had joined the crew… I think I had, at least, unless they gave me this sweet jacket as some sort of weirdly awesome prison clothing? They would not have untied Ray. Logically… I was pretty sure we were not actually prisoners here… but that was the thing, I didn't know what we were. We had not been told why they took us. It would be fine if they had some stupid reason like they just saw us and felt like it because this was their turf and pirates could do whatever they pleased, but no, they didn't even give us that. They just said we would find out in time. At least they were treating us friendly enough.

"No, wait, why are we here?" Ray asked. Seemed he wasn't so willing to let it go. He got zero response from the medic, though. He was already busy, using more and different science thingies to, I assumed, check how healthy the two of them were? I didn't know, but that was alright. I thought, maybe, we could introduce ourselves to some of the crew on deck. If we were going to be here awhile, it would be cool to know who we were going to be spending our time with. I got up off the bench I was sitting on and started to walk towards the door, but something pulled my arm back. I looked back, it was Strider… he was holding my hand.

"No, wait… don't go, lovely… don't leave me with the witch doctor, here…" Strider said, his voice was slurred and his hair was all sort of messy on his face. I had a sudden impulse to run my hand through his hair. I didn't actually do it, I stopped myself in time, but…aww… that was so cute, that was adorable. He didn't want me to leave his side. I looked between him and Ray.

"I don't want to stay here, Emerald." Ray said, quite definitively. He was absolutely set on this, but I… I wanted to stay with Strider, especially if he wanted me here. Maybe I could, um… lengthen the tether? That way, we could both get what we wanted? Compromise, you know? That was the best solution, huh? I closed my eyes and concentrated, but all I could feel was Strider's warm hand enclosing my own, I could feel a steady beat from him that was not my own, a pulse, a different way of life… and yet, they could complement each other and make a harmony.

And then I was hit in the back, and again felt this flow of bright blue energy flowing through me and blasting outward, and suddenly Ray jerked away. I guessed I had… pushed him? I swung my head around to look at who had hit me, but at this point, I knew who it was. The Old Coot… The old coot was back up, standing up next to his bed with his stick in hand.

"I unblocked it for you not a few hours ago, don't you go and block it up again." He said in what I guessed was disgust? I wasn't really sure what he was feeling, the strange old man. How in the world did he get up and how was he being more, um, more aware, I guessed the word was? How was he less out of it than Strider?

"Wait, what, old man, I thought you were pumped full of that anesthetic stuff?!" I frowned. His mind seemed so clear in comparison.

"If the-" The medic started to say something, but the old coot shot him a weird sort of look. "If a man that old was given a significant amount of anesthetic, he would be at risk of dying." The medic mumbled, as he continued to work on Strider, checking something on the arm that wasn't still holding on to my hand.

"So you didn't have that stuff going through you?" Ray asked.

"Just taking a nap. Can't an old man take a nap in peace?! Now I want to go out. Ray, come with me. There is something we have to talk about." He said. I could feel Ray's eyes boring into my, boring into Strider. He really didn't like it, wasn't a fan of what was going on here. "Come on, Ray."

"Ow! Old man, I could kill you!" Ray, I could only assume, had gotten his own taste of the "magic stick." The old coot only laughed.

"You could, but you won't. I know too much, ain't that right, boy? I know far too much. Well, let's be on our way." Then, without further hesitation, the old man walked slowly out of the room. Ray looked back at us for a second, and then began to follow the old man. Was that… was that on purpose. Did the old man was to leave me with Strider on purpose? That crafty little old man. He knew I wanted to stay with Strider, didn't he? And he was creating a situation in which I could be alone with him… well, almost alone with him… there was the medic, but he was… did he count? He seemed like he was staying pretty quiet, pretty intent on his work. And, well… If I was going to stay here, that meant that anything I did, my entire life would be on display for these guys. There was no way you could hide things from people on a ship this small, in a space this compressed. I might as well get used to having to share my life with these guys. I was used to not having a lot of privacy, so that wasn't the problem, this was just a new group of people I would have to share with.

I looked him in the eyes, they were slightly cloudy. He still wasn't completely there, so I couldn't really speak seriously with him. Still… this was cute. I could not deny that… and he was still hanging on to my hand, like if he let go, I would disappear forever.

"Witch doctor, huh?" I asked, trying to go with something light hearted. That was a really weird thing to call the medic guy. I had absolutely no idea what it meant, and I wasn't convinced he knew what it meant, either? "What's that supposed to mean, now? Insulting the man who's treating you?"

"He does the thing with the needles… I don't like it Emerald, I don't like it. Make sure he doesn't do it, ok?" Strider said. That did not help at all. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I had a feeling he wasn't going to be making sense until the anesthetic got out of his system. I didn't know if it was true, but it felt like it was stronger in him than it was in me. How did that work? There were a lot of questions. The medic guy, who's name I still hadn't gotten, I would sometime later… get his name, that is. I had a feeling… I was going to be here for a while before I got any definitive answers. So, I sat back down on the bench I had been sitting on before. My hand was still in his, we had not broken the connection. I felt like he would not let me break the connection. And… as I was there, holding his hand, it was almost like I could feel this energy around him and it felt like it was… dark gray with traces of bright reds and blues dancing about him in tiny wisps.

I gasped and pulled away. What in the world was this? Why did I see that? But, I did not see that. I didn't see anything when I was looking at him, it was just him… but then where did the colors come from? Was I just hallucinating or something? It was like I… felt it, not saw it. But… how do you feel colors? I stared at him. Was it… was it something he did? Or, maybe it was a side effect of the anesthetic? I did not know, I hadn't touched anyone else when they were under the influence of it, so I had nothing to compare it to to confirm or deny that. When I pulled my hand away, the color… feeling… thing fell mostly away. I could still sense it a little, but it was just a hollow echo of what it had been.

"No, don't go… I need you…" Strider said. I didn't want to take him too seriously. I had no idea if he would feel similarly once he got that stuff out of his system, like it did for me. I did not think I acted like this when I had the anesthetic in me. I couldn't deny, though… those words made me really happy, even if he didn't mean them or would change his stance as soon as he was in his right mind… right now, it made me really happy, and I went ahead, with a little hesitance, and ran my hand through his tousled hair, scratching his head in a circular motion, entangling his hair in my fingers. This was nice… I never needed to leave here. If I could just hold on to this moment. And then he fell asleep, apparently a light scratch on the head was enough to completely put him to sleep.

"Goodnight." I said, a smile playing on my lips. He smiled too, and settled down into a deep sleep.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	35. Secrets Secrets

**Ray's POV**

* * *

I followed the old man out of the room with some reservation. Seeing the two of them, I did not want to leave them together in a closed room alone. It wasn't that I was against any form of love because I couldn't see Mel, but come on. She gets her identity, she gets magical powers, she gets a chosen one to drag around, the ability to go out and adventure, and now a love interest? And what did I get? Less than nothing out of this, taken out of my life, away from my love, away from my kingdom. I had a kingdom to lead, and she ruined it. She ruined everything. Why did it seem like fate itself was for her and against me? It just, it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair and I was mad about it. I was allowed to be mad about it. I would not be the bigger person, here. I did not have to be the bigger person here.

I sighed, at least I could get away from her now, again. Sometimes it seemed like we could almost be friends… and sometimes the only thing that kept me from hurting her in some way or another was the knowledge that she was the only person who could get me back where I belonged. It was just… I didn't know what to say anymore. It seemed everything had gone wrong, ever since I left Meliae's side. I should never have done that, duty or no duty. I should have refused my call. Things would have been much better if I had, not only for me, but for Emerald too… sort of. She would still be out there exploring caves. Or, maybe she would have gotten out of the capital she was trapped in and gotten killed almost immediately. Honestly, I didn't care. She probably wouldn't be on the run from her own family, though. In the long run, it would be better if I had just… stayed. Why did I think it was going to be any different? Why did I go?

"You're as bad as her." The old man said, looking over his shoulder at me. He had a strange smile on his face.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your mind wanders just as much, even when the young girl seems to blush." He said, and laughed a little, I assumed he was amused by his… sort of… almost rhyme? It wasn't a very good rhyme. He was a very strange man, but I knew that already. "You youngsters need to learn to focus, you are distracted too easily."

"Youngster? Who are you calling a youngster? How old do you think I am, old man?" I asked. I had learned the human life cycle. I had learned a lot about humans so that I could adequately spend my time with them and understand them and be of service, so I knew he was, in fact, pretty old, pretty far into the human life cycle. The only stage left to him after this was his death. I, on the other hand, wasn't that old, but I wasn't a kid either. Our lifespans also lasted longer than a human. Rayquaza were a pretty sturdy stock.

"How old you are? Can't say I know, from the look of you. Maybe older than me, years-wise, but that don't matter. I am further along in my life than you are in yours. So, you are a youngster." He said, quite definitively. There would be no argument on this, the old man would not allow it. I frowned. I did not care for being looked down upon in this manner. I did not like to be condescended to. Then again, did anyone really enjoy something like that?

We continued to wander through the halls. He did this sort of old man penguin waddle through the ship. I had to hover very slowly behind him. It was… it was a lot, it was very slow and required a lot of patience, which I did not really have. As we kept going, my patience wore thin, until I finally had to ask him about it.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"We are walking around, there will be a destination in time, my friend. You have no need to worry." He said, a simple smile on his face. Something told me either he wasn't all there, or knew a lot more than he left on.

"I wasn't worried, more like curiosity." I said. The old man nodded, but did not attempt to make any answer to anything I was saying. That guy was going to do things at his own pace, do what he wanted, and think the way he wanted to, and not listen to anybody else. That did not surprise me too much, actually.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night, Ray." The old man said. There was something strange about that phrase. Why did he choose to use that particular phrase?

"Whatever… makes me sleep at night?" I asked. It didn't seem like a legitimate response to what I had just said? It seemed like he was just talking and not really listening to what I was saying. Although, I guessed the same could be said for me. I had not been paying a whole lot of attention to him. Like he said, my mind wandered, like Emerald's. There were important things for me to think about. There were… or maybe I was just distracted a lot easier than I thought I was.

"You heard me." Was the only response the old coot gave. It looked like he was putting in quite a bit of effort to move, especially in this place, where the floor moved, somewhat.

"Do you want me to carry you or anything, old man? You look like you are struggling?" I suggested, and in return I got another wrap on the head from his walking stick.

"Got all the help I want or need from this thing. Learn patience, whippersnapper!" As he said this, he sounded even older than he usually did. It sounded like it was something put on, like he was trying to sound older and frailer than he actually was. What was the purpose of this? Or, was there even a purpose? Perhaps he was just messing with me. No grand gesture or deep meaning, just his own entertainment. That would be a pretty stupid joke.

"Right…" I trailed off. We were moving so slowly, how could he expect me to concentrate on what we were doing? Of course my mind was going to wander. Whoever made this ship did an excellent job. The craftsmanship… I did not know a whole lot about wood working… but it looked very polished and clean, and only a little worse for wear.

"Here." The old man said. I looked up where he pointed, we were at another door. It looked like any of the other doors, why stop at this one? Why do anything? Was this some sort of special room that looked exactly like any of the other ones? Well, I wasn't going to answer any questions just floating here. I reached over the old man and pulled the door open. The room was… pretty unremarkable. It looked like it was just another cabin room, sleeping quarters for the crew. It was pretty small, and pretty plain. There were some maps on one wall, very worn maps with some string pinned on there and little marked dots. I recognized the map as the world map. This was more or less the shape I saw when I flew in to meet Emerald. So this was probably a travel journal… map… of some sort, recording where they went. Maybe this sailor had a journal somewhere that detailed what sot of adventures they had at each stop, and along the journey. Honestly, I would be more interested in reading that than going on a grand adventure, like Emerald wanted. We could have just stayed in the library.

"Privacy?" I asked. The old coot nodded. Seemed I correctly guessed his motives for bringing me to this particular spot. We both went in and he closed the door behind us. "Alright, what is it you want? You had something to tell me?" I asked. I didn't really want to waste my time here. I wasn't very fond of spending time alone with him.

"You've been regretting coming here recently, haven't you? You wished you had just stayed in your dimension? Am I right?" The old man said, turning around to face me. He was right, but what did it matter? And why was he bringing this up now, was he going to try to convince me? Was he going to tell me how to get home? Otherwise, I wasn't particularly interested…

"How about you actually listen for once in your life, rather than speculate on your own." The old man said, still a wry smile on his face.

"Fine." I conceded. "Yes, I have been regretting my choices. I could be home with my wife, with a kingdom to lead. In comparison, this all seems so utterly trivial. I am tired of having to put up with the princess and her selfishness, her inconsiderate nature. I wish I had never come here. I could have let the call go unheeded, and we wouldn't be here now. Mel might have been a little mad at me for not doing my duty… but it would have been worth it. I wouldn't have had to do all… all this." I said. The old man listened silently and it seemed he was deep in thought for a long time, then he began to slowly nod.

"I understand. Hm, the world is strange, is it not? So many possibilities, destinies, folding into each other, intertwining…"

"Get to the point." My patience for the old man's nonsense was low. I knew he was more lucid than he would want to have us believe. How crafty was this guy, exactly? And why was he cornering me specifically? Something was wrong here. And I wasn't entirely sure what, but it was something and it was bothering me, there was something here I wasn't getting, hidden just beneath the surface. He merely laughed in response. This guy took just about everything in stride, didn't he?

"Fine, fine, you are not one for pomp and circumstance, I can see that. Straight to the point, hm? I'd like to enlist you to help save this world."

"Huh?" That came straight out of nowhere. That was not… that was not what I was expecting. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. He wanted me to help… save this world? Well, that would fit the theme, huh? What else would you do on a grand adventure like this but save the whole world? Did it need saving, though? Or rather… maybe that was the wrong question here… Maybe the question I should have been asking was more like… could this world even be saved? From what I had seen of it, this was a world full of thieves, full of killers and corrupt people and governments, a government that did not seem to care at all for its people, where people and Pokemon were sacrificed on the altar of power… Could a world like that be saved? Or, was it so thoroughly corrupt, that it was corrupted to its core?

"I think you may misunderstand what I mean about saving the world. I do not mean I want you to help redeem it, or bring justice to it, or create any sort of good society, or take out the corruption in the capital. I mean I want to ask you to save it from complete annihilation." The old man spoke in a deadly gave voice, no hint, no trace of his prior foolish nature, no kidding, and no sarcasm. He looked me directly in the eyes, and there was a clarity to his eyes. Regardless of whether this was real or not, the old man sincerely believed the world would meet its ruin.

"Complete annihilation?" I asked, an eyebrow raised. The old man merely nodded. I half expected him to bust out laughing any second, to let me know it was all a joke, and that he totally got me. I mean, this world was kind of a mess, but it didn't look like it was going to be destroyed or something. It looked like it was falling apart, but in the way an old house did. The way the old man talked, it sounded like he thought someone or something was coming to level the house so that all that remained was the foundation, or perhaps not even that.

There was a porthole on the wall, and the old man walked over to it and looked out wistfully. This room was at the edge of the ship. The view went straight down to the land. Oh, we were over land now, it seemed. When did that happen? Last time I checked we were still over the ocean. Now, it was land… And, it didn't look particularly pretty. Land was supposed to be green and lush, wasn't it? It looked like… the land itself was rotting. I couldn't quite explain why I thought that, what exactly it was I was seeing that made me come to that conclusion, but I hadn't really noticed it before.

It looked like… the colors of the entire world had been desaturated, so that everything was closer to gray than it should have been. There weren't a whole lot of people around, or trees. It seemed there was a lot of flatland in this world, or maybe it was only this region of the world. I saw a conglomerate of buildings in the distance, they looked worn down. That was the feeling I got from the whole world, worn down, fading. That was what I saw looking out, and honestly it was more than a little depressing. Maybe this was the kind of place some sort of landlord would want to tear down. Is that what he thought was happening, or?

"This kingdom has lost its liveliness, hasn't it? This is much different than the capital, isn't it? There's a reason they keep you in. There's a reason they say it's so dangerous outside. It is, of course… but it wouldn't be if resources were less scarce. It wouldn't be if the world wasn't being sucked dry." He said, the last part was nothing more than a hushed whisper. He might have said something else under his breath, but I didn't catch it.

"Being sucked dry…?" I knew I was just repeating him at this point, but I was interested now, he got me interested, he caught me. I wanted to know more. I knew I didn't really care about the fate of this world but that didn't mean I wasn't a little interested in finding out what exactly the fate of this world was.

"The whole purpose of that place… the capital. Emerald said it was the entire kingdom, and I am sure, with any time you spent there, you were convinced of the same thing. Everyone there thinks that it is the whole kingdom because it was… it used to be, a long time ago. It extended outwards… it became an empire, and all of that was used by the capital. Did it never occur to you that that place never seems to be low on supplies despite the fact it does not appear to trade with any outside entity? You think that place is entirely self sufficient? No."

This land was only part of the kingdom Emerald was in was to serve the capital? That made sense, I supposed. It was a horrible way to run a land, a people. If that was true… I was, quite honestly disgusted. I was… to forsake you own people for your own sake? That was inexcusable. I knew that the government here was corrupt, but… the land itself was suffering from their rule. Wow, this was completely corrupt… how did they make the land do that, though, how did they desaturate it like that? What exactly were they doing, here?

"How in the world are they doing… that?" I asked, pointing at the land, how it was all… like that?

"Sucking the energy out, out of souls, and out of nature, sucking every last drop out of the word. It's almost all gone." The old man sighed, and turned around to look at me. He looked weary, as weary as the world he was talking about. This was the face of a man who had seen a lot in his life and was just about done… but he wasn't done yet.

Still, that was… unbelievable. The guys who were chasing us were after the whole world, were using the energy of the entire world, to feed themselves, to feed their magic. I supposed it made sense. Magic was taken from the energy of people and nature, although, usually it was then given back as a byproduct of the magic or… something like that? All I knew was that there were Pokemon that used magic in my dimension, but they the world never turned into… this. Maybe it was just that the citizens of the world used far more magic than the citizens of my world ever could. Maybe? I didn't know.

And what would happen to this world when it ran out of magic, or, not magic, when it ran out of energy, life energy? What would happen to it? Would everyone die?

"Um, alright… So what do you want me to do about it, and why should I help you out?" I asked. I got a grave chuckle in response.

"Quite the pragmatic one, aren't we? Straight to the point and little to no compassion for those who need your help." He said. His words cut through me a little. I cared a lot about people… when I was with Mel, we would go out and help with the community with any number of things. We even did that silly request with the pinecones. And now I wouldn't help save this whole world? That didn't seem very logical, did it? I was calloused, now, wasn't I? I was… unsympathetic. In fact, the only thing that cut me was the thought that I didn't care. The actual fate of the world didn't… bother me too much. Maybe because I was so focused on leaving this word, and really, who cared about the people left behind. These were not my people. It seemed harsh. I wasn't even sure if it was my own thoughts. It could have been the shadow being that didn't care. But, then again, I couldn't just keep blaming all my shortcomings on him.

"You know, when the world is spent, the court, the ruling body will not stay here. They will forsake the people of this world and abandon ship. They will leave and find some other world. They would not be draining this world at such an outrageous rate if they did not have a way to save themselves. That is the kind of people we are dealing with. If they are going to leave, that means they must have a way to leave. You can use it to get out of here and back to your world."

"So I save the world… go home, Emerald keeps her powers, so she doesn't keep complaining. We work together to do something good and both get what we want?" I asked, seeing if I had the situation accurately mapped.

"Yes."

"…Why didn't you tell me about this sooner, old man?" I asked. It was… a little too good to be true, if I was being honest. I hoped it wasn't actually too good to be true. "There isn't some sort of catch, is there? You're not just making the offer seem better than it is?"

"Well, you will be risking your life, going up against impossibly strong enemies. You will most likely have every aspect of your character and ability challenged, but it is much better than whatever it is exactly that Emerald is planning. I know she has something."

"She was hoping to learn more about medicine and science, because there's stuff it can do the same as magic. If she learns that she can lose her magic and still function in this world." I said. I didn't think it was a secret, and even if it had been, it wasn't anymore. Whoops. The old man nodded in understanding.

"Science, she will find, is not an adequate substitute for magic, I'm afraid. There is a lot science can do, but it can't do everything, and there are a lot of side effects. Magic is much more direct. Unless science catches up quick, I'm afraid she will not be satisfied."

"Alright, so… any idea what this way home is?" I asked.

"They have an object that can do it. I do not have a lot of information about it. We'll have to go and find out, I'm afraid." I sighed, I knew this was going way too smoothly. Yeah, this would be an amazing thing to do, but it wouldn't be easy to pull off. I was willing to do it, though… I was willing to move mountains to be back by Meliae's side. Although, I hoped I wasn't actually asked to move mountains. I wasn't sure in what scenario I would have to do that… but, uh… where was I going with this, exactly. My mind kept wandering, even when I was trying to have such a strong resolve.

"Do I have your help?" The old coot asked. Was it just me, or was he standing straighter than he had been before? Was his voice stronger? Did he look, seem, at least, a little younger? I looked out at the world, it was dark and gray. Meliae… what would she want me to do… she would want me to do this. It was my duty to hold up the pillars of the world over here… That was essentially what the old man was asking me to do. He was asking me to hold up the world and save it from the brink of ruin. And… Emerald wasn't about to send me home soon either way. This was probably the best chance I had. This was what Mel would say was my duty. The old man did make a pretty incredible deal. I held out a claw to him.

"Deal." I said, and it seemed like he relaxed back into his old man slump. He seemed satisfied, like he had just eaten a particularly satisfying meal.

"Good, good, now come on, the lovebirds have had enough time alone, ya think? Let's go ruin some young people's fun!"

* * *

 **have a good day**


	36. The End of the World as We Know It

**Emerald's pov**

* * *

I had dozed off too… fallen asleep on Strider's chest… I would have liked to say it was accidental, but I meant… how could it have been? Well… the falling asleep part was a mistake. I had… I just wanted to listen to his heartbeat for a moment. I know it sounded weird, but I wanted to see if I could… If I could hear what was inside his heart. I knew it sounded silly. I was pretty sure that wasn't a thing that could happen. I was just feeling a bit poetic. I knew you couldn't actually hear anything about a person from listening to their heart beat… well, other than maybe their stress level or something?

Anyways, when I woke up, Strider was there, looking at me curiously. His eyes were clear again. He had slept off the anesthetic and he was just looking at me, and I was looking at him. We locked eyes for a moment… and then I jumped up.

"Uh, sorry, I just-" I started to explain. Strider cut me off with the shake of his head and a hand put up.

"No need to explain, little lady. Next time, ask me first, alright?" He said. I wasn't sure what to do with that… how did he feel about what just happened? Did he actually not mind? Did he like that I did that? He looked me right in the eyes, after all. And he didn't move to throw me off or anything. I was the one who got off him. I tried to read his expression, but I couldn't really tell what he was thinking. He had an incredible straight face. He was an incredible kind of guy. And he said… next time. Would there be a next time? Did he want there to be a next time? Did he want… me? I was about to ask him what he meant by that, when he pointed. I followed his finger to where he was pointing. He was pointing to the door, and there were Ray and the old coot, looking in on us. How long had they been there Oh my goodness… were they judging me?

"Uh, hi." I waved a little pathetically at them. The old man's face was just bursting with mirth. He was enjoying this very much, wasn't he? He enjoyed seeing people squirm. He was that kind of guy, wasn't he? Or was he Maybe he was just an old guy who found joy in simple things. Why let yourself get caught up in grief or worry when you could just be amused by everything. Ray was giving him a weird look. I didn't know what that meant, exactly.

"Did we… interrupt something?" Ray asked, finally turning his head from the old man and looking in at us.

"Nah, little lady just fell asleep on the watch." Strider said. I was glad he cleared that up. I wasn't sure what I would have done if he decided he wanted to dig into me for this and tease me. I had had enough teasing in the past to last me a lifetime, seriously, an entire lifetime… I was the dud, the screw up. Although, out here I was less of a screw up. There wasn't a whole lot I was doing that I could screw up, what with getting captured and stuff… Honestly, it felt like I was just along for the ride for most of this journey. Did I really have any choice here, or was this a railway of destiny, dragging me along like the tether that connected me and Ray.

Wait, what? I stared at Ray. Was the affliction thing affecting him again, and affecting me too? There was something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Sometimes I felt like we were more connected than I knew we actually were, like I could feel what he was feeling, or maybe that was just empathy, or maybe it was all in my head. Probably that one, honestly.

"Right… well… we're all awake now. We should talk." Ray said. There was something on his mind, something heavy. Probably the fact that we had been captured by pirates. We were guests, though. If we weren't before, we were now… or did that curtesy only extend to myself? Well, if that was the case, I was part of the crew now. I could ask to pardon the other three. I didn't want them to be treated as prisoners.

"Excuse me. You all seem to be gathered here. This is probably a good time for you" Captain Jesse poked her head into the room. Oh, right! She was a person who was here, I almost forgot… for whatever reason. I glanced quickly towards Strider… he was why… stupid Strider, making me forget important things.

"Oh, captain Jesse." I was the first to break the silence. She still looked all cool and stuff. Although she looked a little bit more stressed than he was before. I wondered if something was wrong, or there was just the general stress that came with having command of a ship, a command of a people. I never wanted to be in charge of a bunch of people, it would be way too much. I knew I was a princess and should therefore strive to be a good leader, but honestly it just seemed like a pain, didn't it? "What can we do for you?" I asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the rest of them give me a look. Was it because I was being friendly with someone who captured us? Captain Jesse looked at us for a second and looked… uncomfortable? Almost like her resolve was shaken for just a moment. She recovered, though, and then it was back to business, looking professional and put together.

"I hope you have taken a liking to our ship. I bet you are still wondering why exactly you are here. I'll explain that now." She shifted her weight a little.

"Finally." Ray said. He had been waiting for an explanation, I knew it. Of course he was, who wouldn't be it this situation? We were knocked out and taken on to a ship, subjected to a strange sort of sleeping liquid… and then, instead of being treated like prisoners, we were being treated more like guests. I didn't quite understand our position myself, and I had spoken to the captain, alone.

The captain did not say anything. Instead, she rustled through her coat pockets, until she found what she was looking for. When she found it, she pulled it out. It was a crumpled up piece of paper… wait. Was this what I thought it was? She unfolded the paper… it was exactly what I thought it was… there was my face, again, and Ray, with the word "reward" in big bold letters. That stupid wanted poster… was it actually so far spread that sky pirates had one? I didn't understand! I hadn't been gone from home that long! How were these circulating so fast?!

"You have to be kidding me…" Ray said, and put a claw to his face. I wasn't sure if we were in danger or not. Strider had had one of those same posters, hadn't he? We were wanted for a cash reward If it wasn't for the promise of a better reward, Strider would have probably turned me over to the dark court by now. I was… I was grateful that he didn't, but now these pirates might? They would do something like that for money. What use was I to them, anyways, other than as the means to a reward? It wasn't like I had proven my usefulness. And… even though they were pirates, and probably against the government set in place… maybe they would auction us off to the best bidder… or send a proxy to send me back home and return with a reward.

"We found this the last place we docked yesterday. It takes funds to keep this operation going, and so we took it off the wall. When we ran into you that night it seemed a little too good to be true, so we had to take you onboard. We were ready to turn the two of you over to the authorities, but then Emerald here won me over. Something about her spirit. She was a pirate at heart, I could tell… and so I couldn't cage her away. I couldn't do something like that to a fellow pirate. We are meant to be free. That is why we are on a continuous adventure. That is why I asked her if she wanted to be a part of the crew. She said she did. As for the rest of you. Well…" She took a long pause and turned to Strider and the old man.

"Why did ya take us in the first place?" Strider asked, prompting her to keep going.

"I'm getting to it, I'm getting to it." Jesse said, she was looking into space a little, like she was trying to put her words together. "The crew is… very particular about things staying private… We are the best kept secret in the kingdom, and we are quite proud of it. There are… that is, when we do something, when we do something a pirates, there are to be no witnesses. That includes nearby travelers." She looked to Strider and the old coot. "That would be you two. We didn't want to kill right away without assessing the situation, though, so we made sure you couldn't harm the ship or the screw while we decided what was to be done with you. That is where I have been." The captain said, then fell silent. Seemed she was done with what she was saying. It took a second to get all of that.

"And your unworldly decision?" The old coot asked. Unworldly, what was that supposed to mean, or was he just saying words? Would he just say words, or did everything have a meaning, a rhythm and a rhyme.

"You are free to come and go as you please. You pose no threat to us. But do not tell others of our existence… or of our mercy. We need not seem visible or weak in the eyes of the public." Captain Jesse said. The rest of us nodded. This was obviously pretty important to her. Of course, pirates couldn't seem weak. If they did, people might keep trying to take advantage of them, people might try to take them down and make them be a legitimate members of society. That was the worst fate a pirate could face! Seriously, though, could you imagine a pirate being a shopkeeper or something? Wouldn't that be silly?

"Good." Ray said... I had a funny feeling I knew what was coming next. "Then let's go." How did I know that? He was such a stubborn guy, and even after I told him about my plan. Couldn't he see that I had to stay here to learn about this substitute for magic? And then he could go home, and we could both be happy. Was he really so desperate to leave that he would actually forsake his own happiness? That didn't seem right. There… was something I was missing, maybe? I wasn't sure.

"Go? I told you there are things to learn, here, Ray." I said, frowning at him. He seemed to open his mouth to respond, but the old man put a hand on him, stopping him. What was going on with that?

"I would like to stay here for a while. We were traveling anyways, no? This way we also have shelter, food, and protected. I demand we stay right here! I won't move, and neither will Strider, will you, boy?" The old man said, and sat on the ground.

"Uh…" Strider looked between us and the old man. "I do actually think we should stay here, for the time being. We can always jump ship when the time comes, ya know?" He said. That reminded me, he didn't have that dark thing over his eyes anymore. What did he call them? He told me once what they were… sunglasses, I think was what he called them. I didn't see them on his face anymore. So, where were they? They didn't seem to be anywhere in the room. Well, he seemed pretty fond of them. I was sure he would reclaim them eventually. I could see his eyes, now. They were dark and deep, and seemed to go on forever… In the non poetic sense, they were brown.

Ray was now the only one in disagreement. We all looked at him. It could have been that peer pressure got to him, or maybe he legitimately changed his mind. Honestly, it was probably the first one, but oh well. I didn't really mind, as long as we got to stay on this awesome ship. As long as I got to be a pirate. This was the kind of thinking that made him not like me, wasn't it? I didn't care right now.

"I guess it's been decided." Ray said.

"Captain! Captain! This is first mate James. We are approaching the darkness. Awaiting your command."

I whipped my head around… a sound, a voice, it was James voice, but it also wasn't? Something was strange, something was wrong with it. It sounded… distorted, like something else was doing a James impression, and a pretty good one. James was talking with us from a distance… somehow? They had obviously made a lot of advancements in this world that we did not have in the capital, and there were things in the capital that I had not yet seen out here… They probably had to get more crafty out in these parts because they didn't have magic or the resources of an entire kingdom to draw on. They had to do more with less, and that requires some creativity on their part… compound that over however many years this had been going on, and you got things like the anesthetic and hearing James' voice from… presumably… up on deck. I would have loved to figure out how that worked It sounded like a super fun time to just go at a machine and take it apart and figure out how it worked and put it back together. I was eager to start learning the way of their world.

Uh, but back to the message he gave us, and not how it got to us. 'We are approaching the darkness.' What in the world did that mean? I meant, I knew what darkness was, but what did he mean we were approaching the darkness, talking about it was some physical thing or location? It was just… darkness, it was an adjective. Was that some weird code for it almost being night time? Or, was there something else weird going on? I saw Captain Jesse take a box with a thing attached to it on the wall. She talked into it and I could hear her twice, once from her mouth, and once in the same way I could hear James. That was a surreal experience, it was like she had two voices, and the voice coming from the room was sort of half a second behind the voice coming from her mouth. It was almost like… an echo. It was really weird, but I was fascinated by it.

"Take us as close as we can get safely and ride along the coast. I'm coming on deck." She said, and the voice that was imitating her said the same. It must somehow pick up what you are saying and repeat it to who you want to talk to, or possibly for the whole ship. If we were staying here, I would absolutely be using that until I figured it out. I would be careful not to break it though. This was a big ship, and it seemed like that kind of instant communication was important. She put the box back on the wall and looked directly at me.

"Please, come with me. You have only seen the capital most of your life, right? There's something I want to show you." She looked rather… grave. Whatever she wanted to show us, it seemed it was rather serious. I couldn't really say no to that, now could I? I couldn't really deny a request made like that. It didn't even really sound like a request. It was a command from my captain, because she was my captain now, if I was going to be a part of the crew, she would be my captain, and I would gladly follow her.

We walked… or floated, in Ray's case, upstairs. We were all pretty quiet on the way up. In fact, it was really quiet… everywhere. The hum I heard from the bottom of the ship, from the machine keeping us going, was not going quite as loud, now. And none of the crew were talking, and, um… how do I put this? The air seemed… stagnant? Like… uh… like someone was holding their breath, like the world was collectively holding its breath. We were breathing, though. We were alive, I was sure of that. Why would I not be? That was a weird line of questioning.

And then we got up on deck, and we all stopped… We all stopped in our tracks… because… out in the distance… there was the darkness.

I wasn't sure how else I could describe it, or I mean, what else I could call it. Out in the distance, I guessed the closest we could be to it and still be at a safe distance. So, um… this was what the captain wanted to show us. The land was outstretched below us, dry and graying, as it had been… the only difference was… there was a space where the land stopped abruptly and there was just… darkness… complete nothingness past a certain point. The darkness seemed to reach out in tendrils… seemed to be beckoning. What in the world? This… this couldn't be a part of the world, a healthy part of the world. This looked like, an encroaching attacker, something enveloping, consuming the land. Was this why everything looked as it did? Was this why everything was a mess, a land full of darkness and corruption?

"What is it…?" Ray asked. I looked over at him, although it was hard to tear my eyes away from the darkness… away from the complete void of nothingness. I was not sure why, but it enchanted me. Something about it, drawing me in, maybe the same property that was drawing the word in… everlasting darkness.

Anyways. I looked over to Ray. He was leaning forward, almost over the rail. I pulled him back a bit, gently. Something told me it wasn't the healthiest thing in the world to try to get any closer to that thing.

"That there's the darkness. Pay yer respects." James said. He had snuck up behind us, or something like that, joined us when we weren't paying attention. How could we… with this thing here… This… impenetrable mystery. If you looked hard enough, it was almost like you could see something inside… and that was scary. I didn't quite know why that was scary, but I was scared. I was scared of the things I would find on the other side of it all. Or, even worse, there might be absolutely nothing on the other side, not even myself, nothing.

"Why pay our respects? Isn't that something you typically say when people die?" I asked. James nodded.

"Many a good man has lost their life to the darkness. Some lose their minds to despair and throw themselves in, never to be heard from again. Some a killed by the destruction the darkness brings, they don't have enough food or water. All do not deserve what they get." James took off his hat and closed his eyes. Something told him he knew quite a few people that had lost their lives to this… thing.

"This…" Captain Jesse said, gesturing to the darkness. "This is the border of the kingdom. And it's like this all the way around."

"But wait, what about other kingdoms, we get trade from…" But then it dawned on me. Captain Jesse saw the look of realization on my face and nodded.

"It all comes from here. There's nothing outside the kingdom. There's nothing left. And… if you look closer… it's growing. Soon… soon, if nothing is done, there won't be anything left. An entire planet, wiped out."

"What?!" I was in shock, the whole world… this kingdom was all that was left, and that was fading fast. What would have happened to me if I just stayed at home? Would death have closed in without me even knowing it?

"Yeah, unfortunately, it's the truth… little lady… it's a truth we all try to run away from, forget about, and such, but it's always there, in the corner of our minds, of our collective conscious. We are all on a timer, here." Strider said. He sounded oddly serious and humble, and who wouldn't be humble in the face of this… awe inspiring force of… nature? Was this something natural? I suddenly realized, I truly had no solid grasp on what was natural in this world and what was not. I wanted to think I knew things so I could grab onto something, anything, but really, that was only wishful thinking. The void in front of me… that was the god of this world, that was the meaning of it all… nothing.

No, no, no, no, no! I couldn't think like that! That wasn't me! That was nothing like me! I was nothing like that! As long as there was still a chance, you just had to hold on to it. And, as long as this darkness didn't consume the entire world, there was still a chance.

"How did this happen?" I asked. I had never heard anything about this at home. Nobody in the capital… except maybe the members of the dark court, would ever even imagine something like this. So I had no idea if someone did this, o if it was nature or… what was going on. Could this have been prevented? Could it still be prevented? Was there something I could have done, or something I could do? I… I needed to do something, the world would not die here, not when I was only just starting to explore.

"Nobody is exactly sure how it started. Many think it is the natural manifestation of the world's ruin… however… it is accelerated by the acts of the dark court. If they were to stop their acts of destruction, the world would perhaps have time to heal, and we could help it along, and we could prevent the absolute ruin of the world. But… otherwise, there will be no way to stop it. If things continue like this… there will be nothing left." Captain Jesse said. She had the attention of the entire ship. Many of the pirates already had their hats off as well, perhaps commemorating lost comrades… family members… who knew who they all lost? They would soon be lost himself if there was nothing done to stop the darkness, nothing done to soothe this burning world. She stood up tall, and pulled her sword out, reaching it out to the heavens, as if she were challenging nature itself. "That is why we stop the acts of the dark court. They strike cities, strike the world to take from it, to gain ultimate power for their dark master. We counter strike. We will never give up, we will never give up on this world! These skies are ours. We have been a thorn in their sides as long as we have been a crew. And you know what pisses them off the most, gang?"

"They will never catch us!" A choric roar came from the pirate crew. The words were almost indistinguishable, but I managed to make it out. Many of them pumped their fists in some sort of… I didn't know, a brother or sisterhood. This was their rallying cry, I guessed. It was kind of amazing, getting all these people to be excited together over this one thing. If a team of pirates could get so excited, and they were so resourceful… I had no doubt, if there was any possibility to stop this, they would be the ones to do it. The guys in the den of thieves certainly wasn't going to do it.

"That's right. Because we leave no evidence, we aren't even on the map." She smiled dangerously, and her sword seemed to glint in the sunlight…. Sunlight… sunlight on the backdrop of the endless darkness, the overwhelming darkness… Why did it seem to draw everything in? Why was it… calling me? Calling my name? The call of the void… End my adventure before it even had the chance to begin, nipping myself in the bud, snuffing it out.

Something yanked me backwards. I never realized that I had been at the rails again. Some pirate I didn't know had pulled me back.

"Lassy, ya can't look at it too long, bad fer the mind, bad fer the soul." She said, she had a really neat looking bandana, and her leg was just a metal pole. Seemed she had lost the leg at some point. I nodded at her and faced away from the darkness. A few other pirates were doing the same thing for Ray. This was the first time either of us had seen this phenomenon in our lives, but that wasn't true for any of these guys, was it? Anyone who lived out here saw it. We probably would have seen it too, if the walls of the capital weren't so high. Maybe that was the reason the walls were so high in the first place. I mean, I was raised to believe that the place I lived was created when a meteor fell from the sky and hit a giant rock in the ocean, and it carved out the crater we lived in, but maybe that wasn't actually true. Maybe, just maybe, the walls were built artificially high, specifically so that the citizens inside could never see this big obvious thing in the sky, couldn't see their doom coming for them. Keep the masses ignorant, keep the masses hidden. Things were drifting through my head, and I did not know where it was coming from. I didn't quite feel like myself. Maybe this was what Ray experienced, it was kind of what I experienced in that other world. Was that other world… on the other side of the darkness? That veil of darkness… Was that darkness the source of the affliction that was affecting Ray? There was a shadow version of him. Maybe there was a shadow version of all of us… just on the other side of the veil.

"Right… sorry… can we… can we go now?" I asked. I felt exhausted. I wanted to sleep and sleep for days on end. This was what we were up against? This horrible thing? How were we supposed to fight that? Well, we weren't. We were supposed to take down the court… stop them from doing things to make the problem worse. Then, maybe the world would fix itself, maybe. It was the only chance we had. I just… I couldn't think about that right now. It felt like all of my energy had been siphoned in a single moment. I needed rest, I needed to recover. Without waiting for an escort, I went downstairs, went to the medical bay, and fell asleep. My dreams were full of darkness, my pores were full of it. I was full of it… but I could repel it, or could I? Only… only… only time would tell. This was too much…

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	37. A Single Goal

**Ray's POV**

* * *

I understood now, I understood why the old coot stopped me from telling Emerald about the world dying, about how we needed to stop the court. Well, she had already known that, but we hadn't really done anything about it, and I got the feeling that that was because she was more afraid for her own life than she was concerned about the rest of the world or any other person. If she was really going to put her everything into saving the world, it needed to be personal for her, and also for me. The old man, he was a crafty one. He got both of us separately working for the good of the world, both for our own relatively selfish reasons.

It was honestly pretty genius of him. But I knew that was what he was up to. He managed to create a situation that was good for everyone, except the ones who had been poisoning this world in the first place. Emerald would go do what it took to get rid of the dark court to get rid of the darkness, because she was afraid of it. I would go because they had a way to get back to my world, get back to my love, get back to my kingdom. I wouldn't be able to do that with the court still around. They no doubt kept it very secret. And the rest of them were doing it because, well, this was their home, and it was being destroyed. That was a simple enough motive. And just like that, we were all on the same side. This seemed a little too set up, a little too orchestrated. But, I was going to see Mel… if I was going to see Mel, be with her again, I was willing to do just about anything. I was more than willing to go up against that court. Besides, I wanted to get back at that guy with the Rattatta.

Seemed the darkness or whatever it was… was too strong for Emerald. She was asleep in the medical bay now. Or something like that? The old coot mumbled some nonsense about that, I didn't really understand. He wasn't exactly coherent when he didn't want to be. I wasn't sure if it just took him a lot of effort to actually make sense, or if it was all a façade or, like… I didn't know, I guessed there were any number of possibilities. There was so much about this world I did not know, about people I did not know. This was the way of this world.

The darkness called me too. It seemed we did get a bit too close to it for Emerald and I. Everyone else on the ship had some immunity because this had been part of the backdrop of their lives. They likely built up some natural resistance, like one would to a sickness. For the two of us, however, this was the first time we had seen it, first time we had experienced it, and so we were very sensitive to it. We were called to the void at a further distance than others would have. I was fine now that I was inside, now that I couldn't see it anymore, couldn't feel it tugging at me. The captain said something about people getting sick with despair and throwing themselves in, that they had lost crew members to that fate. It must have been quite sad, but, having experienced the effects of that… entity… I could see how that might happen. At the time, I had wanted to go in myself, although, it wasn't so much because of despair of any sort. It was more… curiosity? I was fascinated by what might be on the other side. I had had the strongest urge to experience void, to embrace the vast nothingness, and become one with it. It felt like it would be peaceful.

But, that would be throwing away everything I ever cared about. Why would I do something like that… unless I was under some other influence, which I knew I was, but apparently I had not raised the alarm too high with that behavior, in terms of being dangerous. James had promised me he would beat me up and tie me up again if I ever became dangerous. That was oddly comforting, that if I wasn't in control, they would make it so some other entity could not use my body for its own purposes.

I looked out the window of the medical bay. The darkness wasn't there anymore, we had flown far away from it, because of our reaction to it. We would have to go near it to fight it off, but that could be later, when we had built up more of a resistance. It was alright, we would be able to do it, I would be able to get back home.

Whatever it was, the way that I could get home, the way they were planning to get out… Either the old coot legitimately didn't know how exactly they planned to get out, or he wasn't telling me. I frowned, looking out at the clouds. They were white and puffy… deceptively happy. That was what the castle, the capital was, it was deceptively happy. Why was it like that? Why did the citizens seem so… care free. Did they know? Did they know anything at all? Or were they just the benefactors of the carnage that was happening, and so they simply did not care. How selfish, their own people. Or… maybe they didn't know. That seemed more likely, when I thought about it. Such a large group of people… really, what was the likelihood they all were ok with what was happening? Surely, at least some of them would have their conscience disturbed, that was, assuming they knew what was going on. That was kind of just speculation and assumption. I had better evidence than that. Mainly, if the dark court was out in the open, if all the citizens knew of them and their doings, there would be no need for a secret meeting in the catacombs of the capital.

So, the people of the capital did not know, or at least, most of them did not know. Poor ignorant fools. I had been an ignorant fool, too. But, what counted was that I knew now. I would not be made a fool anymore, not this day. I wondered if we would ever have the chance to let those people know. Who knew, maybe if they knew, they would help us overthrow their own corrupt government, or maybe they just wouldn't believe us, and attack us for insulting their king… a puppet king. He was only a figurehead, wasn't he? That dark lord he was talking to, that was the guy that actually ran the kingdom. I wondered exactly how much power the apparent king actually had, how many decisions did he actually make about his kingdom? Or… was he really nothing more than a friendly face, dancing by the strings of the dark master.

I glanced over to Emerald, she was still asleep, although she had just turned over, so I thought maybe she had just woken up. She had not. I was not feeling sleepy, but I needed rest, too, so everyone else left it to me to watch over Emerald and wait until she woke up. When she did, we were going to have a meeting with the whole crew and our little band of travelers in order to come to a decision on what exactly to do next, what our next move was. Now that we were all on the same side with the same goal, we needed to be on the same page with our course of action. And that was what the meeting was for.

The room was absolutely empty otherwise. I was left alone with my thoughts. The medic was grabbing a bite to eat or something. He had said he would bring something back for me. Hopefully, he would bring meat or fish or something. I was feeling rather weak from the exposure to the darkness, more than I cared to admit. I didn't need sleep right now, but I did need protein, and I was counting on him to bring me some.

It was quiet, stale, like it had been on the deck… I wondered if I could open up the window a little bit, just so I could get some air while staying in here, watching over Emerald… I tugged a little at the window, but it would not budge. It wasn't actually the kind of window that opened, was it? It was just a piece of glass in the wall. Well, I couldn't exactly break it, though. That wouldn't be very good of me, as a guest. So, how could I get out in the air? I could always just leave Emerald behind. I could get far enough away from her. Speaking of that, wasn't the old coot supposed to be teaching Emerald magic? He had lengthened the tether between us, and then done nothing after that. I mean, I guessed we did kind of get distracted, but was he still going to do that, teach her? I supposed he sort of had to. He said that there wasn't enough of science to live up to magic, and she and I would most definitely need to be more powerful in order to even put a dent into the dark master's followers. I remembered the Rattatta again. That was the only experience we had had trying to fight any of the actual members of the court, and of course, Emerald's sisters were quite powerful, from what I had seen during the few days I spent in the castle with them. Hm… she wouldn't be the only one who had to fight people who had been close to her. I got to fight my fellow chosen ones, the guys I had spent years training with. I knew how strong they were, too, and unlike myself, they could have only gotten stronger.

"Ray…" I turned around, it was Emerald.

"Good, you're up." I replied.

"You were… watching over me?" She asked.

"Orders from the captain, don't get any ideas." I said, although I had been sort of worried about her, I wasn't about to tell her that. She just nodded in response. Sleepily, she looked around, as if to see if anyone else was around, if that force of darkness was still around, but it was not. Things were ok now, things were ok, uh, relatively. Things were relatively ok. We weren't in any immediate danger, anymore. We weren't about to be sucked into the void. We weren't about to die.

"Are we good?" Emerald asked. I was unsure if she meant if things were ok outside, or if things were ok between the two of us. Either way, the answer was the same.

"Yes." That was right, my reason for hating her, her selfishness, her unwillingness to send me home like I wanted… all of that was gone. I felt no particular malice towards her as a person, only towards her action, or, should I say, her lack of action. So now… I was free to just get to know her as a person, and not just see her as an obstacle. This could be a sort of new beginning. Although… I didn't really know where to begin. All I knew of her was filtered through nearly blinding frustration. But, thankfully, I didn't have to think of what to say just yet. Just then, the medic, I found out his last name was Joy, and that was all he usually went by.

"I'm back- Oh, hello, Emerald, you're up. I brought some food." He smiled and brought a pile of fish on a plate over to us, and set it down on the bed. Very good, very good, this was exactly what I needed. I picked up a fish and gobbled it down whole.

"Thank you." Emerald said, yawning and stretching. She looked at the fish. I just picked another one up and ate it whole, bones, skin, scales, I honestly didn't care. My stomach would take care of all of it, no problem. Emerald, on the other hand, stared at the fish like she had no idea what to do with it. Her stomach was a lot more picky, wasn't it, the human stomach was a lot more picky about what it could handle. "Do you have a knife or something?" She asked. Joy nodded quickly and whipped out a small blade, then handed it to Emerald. She carved up the fish with surprising speed and efficiency for a princess. I wasn't expecting her to be that good with a weapon, even if it was just used to eat a fish. Soon, she was eating the finest, cleanest cuts of her fish. She ate one, and then took another and carved that up too. She ate a lot for her size. I guessed she was just as exhausted as I was, and needed something to fulfill her, I mean, to um, to restore her, that was what I meant.

"You can really handle a knife." I said. She looked a little confused as she handed the knife back to the medic Joy. What an interesting name for a dark and burly tattooed man… but, a person's name was a part of their identity, and so it wasn't really something I had any right to judge.

"Well yeah, you gotta carve up meat and stuff, you know?" She said. Ah, this was a normal thing for her, she didn't get that this was something that was actually impressive. "I do this every night for dinner…" She looked at me and Joy, like she was asking us if we actually never did that with a fish or a cut of meat before.

"Skills like that could be transferred over to combat, you know?" I said. She looked at me funny.

"Thank you Ray. Is there any reason you are being particularly, uh, friendly?" Emerald said, popping more fish into her mouth. She talked as she chewed on it. "Not that I don't appreciate it, it just seems a little off, coming from you. I could have sworn you hated me."

"I found a way back home that doesn't involve severing our tether, so you could say I'm in a good mood." I laughed a little.

"Ah, really? What's that? I'm on board for that!" Emerald said.

"Old coot says there's something that can send you back physically, or some method that members of the dark court would use. We take them down, and we can use the method, or rather, I can use it, and you can stay here and help… to stop the spread of destruction or whatever it is you want to do here." I thought for a second, then asked her a question that had occurred to me. "What is it you want to do here? We save the world and I go back to my love and marry her, and inherit the kingdom. What are you going to do once we save the world, Emerald?" I asked. She seemed a little taken aback. I could understand. I had been very hostile up to this point, and now I was taking a genuine interest in her. Again, I didn't have anything against her personally. I just hated the situation she put me in, and now I was going to get out of the situation and back to where I belonged on my own. We were no longer adversaries… I was going to at least try reaching out to her, or, call it a genuine curiosity. She chewed the fish thoughtfully for a moment.

"I'm… not sure. I was counting on having a familiar to fly around on and explore the world… but I won't keep you from your wife. What is her name, again? I don't think you ever said."

"Meliae. She's a Shaymin." I smiled, thinking about her. I never thought I would be talking to Emerald about Mel in a good way.

"You and a Shaymin… good for you, Ray. And that's a really pretty name, too. I'm sure she's good to you, considering you want to get back to her so bad." Emerald said. I nodded, I couldn't keep a smile off my face when talking about her, imagining her, it would be incredible when I could spend time with her again.

"What if you stay with us? You could get your own tattoos, if you like." The medic piped up. I was slightly startled. I had forgotten for a second that he was actually still in the room with us. Emerald seemed slightly surprised too.

"Yeah, I was actually thinking about doing that." She said. "Although, I would still like a partner I could fly around with and go exploring on our own. I was kind of counting on that my entire childhood. I don't know it that's still possible… if there's anyone out there that would want to team up with me."

"Well, I guess you just play it by ear? That's what you have been doing so far, right?" Joy said. Emerald nodded and pounded her fist in her hand, as if she had just decided something, and then she quickly downed the rest of the fish.

"That was delicious. My compliments to the chef." Emerald said cheerily. Now that I thought about it, the fish did taste particularly good, it was cooked, and other flavoring was added to it in a very pleasing matter, pleasing to the senses. I probably swallowed it down too fast to fully appreciate it, but that was quite alright. I would have next time. We were going to be here for a while, it seemed.

"Well, the captain said to call a meeting once we were all up and fed. Time for a meeting?" I asked. Joy nodded and got up, going over to the box on the wall from before.

"Wait wait wait… let me do it, please let me do it. Show me how this thing works, please, I absolutely have to know what this thing is and how it works and stuff. I love it!" Emerald demanded. Joy relented, with a smile, and led Emerald over to the over to the box.

"Well, see, all you have to do is push this button here on the side and talk into it." Emerald pressed the button.

"Hello…" She talked, but she did not hear her own voice in the little echo thing. "What's wrong?

"You have to keep the button pressed down." Joy said. Emerald nodded, learning, understanding. She pressed the button down, and kept it pressed.

"Hello-" She heard her own voice in an echo this time. "Oh, wow, that sounds weird, this is so surreal. I sound so weirddd…." She listened to the echo, very pleased with herself. "Uh, anyways, I'm awake, now. We were gonna have a meeting or something, right, Captain Jesse? So, uh, let's do that right away, or, that is… whenever you are ready, captain!" Emerald then let go of the button and put it back on the wall, on the hook where it was stored.

"Alright, understood, Emerald. All crew members on deck. Thank you." There was a trace of a laugh in her voice. She was definitely enamored with Emerald, in a platonic sort of way. The captain had taken a shining to her, for sure. There was a chorus of 'yes, captain's, supposedly from around the ship, making sure the captain knew they had heard and understood.

"Well, time for us to go on deck." Joy said, and hurried us along. There was a decent amount of traffic in the hallways. There were a lot of pirates, all trying to get onto the deck quickly, so they could have this meeting and go to sleep. A plan to move forward, huh? We were actually going to move forward this time, right? I hoped that was the case. I was tired of feeling like we were going in circles. It was time to move forward.

* * *

 **Have a nice day**


	38. A Crew, A Plan, A Fight to Survive

**Emerald's POV**

* * *

I walked out onto the deck, the evening air was cool and refreshing. It was exactly what I needed in a time like this. It was exactly what I needed, fresh air, good air, and no darkness. Oh, well, the darkness of the night was coming, but it wasn't the same. The night was fine, the night was peaceful. It was dark, sure, but it didn't have that same terrifying magnetism. I didn't want to get near that, ever, I would not let that consume the world. I would not be taken in.

Ray was being, strangely nice to me. He said he didn't have anything against me, I was just keeping him from Mel, and I wasn't anymore. But, still, it seemed a little sudden? Maybe he was making up for lost time? Or maybe he was a little socially awkward himself, or maybe there was something malicious behind this. Honestly, who knew? All I knew was the advice that they told me earlier… just roll with it, roll with it and take things as they came. If it turned out Ray wanted to be friends, cool, if it turned out he was going to betray me… then, I would deal with it then, wouldn't I? At least now, I had a bunch of pirates to back me up. If he made a move, I ha people to back me up. I didn't have just him anymore… and I had Strider, too. Things were a whole lot better now than they had been at any other point in my life. Even though we were up against a terrifying enemy… things were better than they ever had been.

Once we were all gathered on the deck, Jesse stood up on a raised platform and pulled out her sword. She seemed to use her sword for a lot of things… She took out her sword and tapped it to the ground. Everyone, who had been sort of mulling about before, now stood at attention.

"Thank you for all gathering so quickly." She said. "First of all, I would like to welcome Emerald as a brand new apprentice member of our crew." Something about hearing that made me feel really special, really… really special, wanted. I finally belonged somewhere… after all these years, I finally belonged somewhere… and it felt really nice. For once, things were looking up for the dud.

"Also, I would like you to welcome Ray, Strider, and… uh, old coot… as our official guests."

The pirates turned around and gave us some sort of salute… thing. I wasn't exactly sure what it was. The captain did it to. They had… a lot of respect for us, didn't they? Was that weird? Or was it? Were pirates acting like this a normal thing? I meant… they could have some code of ethics or whatever… like gentlemen thieves or something like that? I had no idea. But, it was nice, all the same.

"Very nice. Now… They have agreed to help on our quest to combat the darkness. Emerald is a princess that escaped the capital, and Ray is her partner. They both will be invaluable in our crusade. We are having this meeting now in order to ascertain our position and create an action plan. I would like Emerald and Ray to come up and speak, and then we will open the floor to discussion." Captain Jesse finished and gestured for us to come up to the raised platform. She wanted us to speak to the entire crew? I wasn't used to speaking in front of people.

I sort of froze up, what in the world did they want me to talk about? I um… No, I really didn't know what to say, this was sort of a problem. I had never gotten far enough with the princess thing to do public speaking. My dad always did it instead… his big grandiose speeches. I never thought I would miss him, and I still didn't, but this was the closest I had ever come to missing it. But… back to the present, I had to say something, and I wasn't sure what was going to come out of my mouth but… there were a bunch of sky pirates looking at me expectantly.

"Hi… I'm Emerald I'm from, uh, I'm from the capital, or, what you guys think of as the capital. I just thought of it as the whole kingdom. Anyways…" I froze up again, but this time… Ray put a hand on my shoulder and gently guided me away from my spot on the deck, taking my place. What was he doing? He was going to… make the speech for me?

"I am Ray, heir to the throne of the world legends come from. We have seen the darkness in this world that threatens to swallow up all that that it touches, that threatens to end this world as you know it, and we find it deplorable. We find it unimaginably horrible. We vow to help you, and do anything and everything in our power to stop this darkness from swallowing the world, to dethrone the dark king and dismantle his court. United, we cannot fail."

I didn't know if he was done yet, but he was cut off by thunderous applause. Seriously, someone down on the ground might have mistaken it for thunder. That would be kind of funny, assuming they didn't catch us because of it, thunder without lightning.

"Wow, Ray! That was incredible!" I said, as he got off stage. Captain Jesse started talking after that. She took questions and comments and suggestions from her sailors. It was pretty incredible, seeing the teamwork between them. They seemed to get through so much, they all seemed like they were all on the same wavelength. Or, rather, that they were on some sort of… average wavelength… like, they all had different opinions, but they all worked well together. Ray and I sort of stayed out of it, even though we had just as much of a right as anyone to have our say… The thing was, we didn't know much about the area, what we were doing, exactly. We didn't know what would be best for the crew. We hadn't been around long enough.

When all was said and done, our plan was pretty simple. There was a major center of trade nearby, about a day away from where we were. The ship was running a little low on supplies, and with a handful of new mouths to feed, they needed to stop and get supplies. While they were there, they would also keep an ear out for the local gossip, which would give us a clue for what to do next… We could find out what the dark court was up to next and put a stop to them… At least, that was the plan.

Well, I said 'we' but we wouldn't actually be going anywhere. We would be staying here, on the ship, to actually start practicing magic and learning to fight and such. This was a great solution to the previous problem of me being too recognizable. If I was hiding in the clouds, on a ship that nobody could ever track down, I wouldn't be found. I'd also get the benefit of going to town without any of the danger, because other people would be going for me. The only thing I regretted a little was that I wouldn't get to see this center of trade up close and personal. I was very curious as to how the people of this world lived, and I wanted to help where I could… and I couldn't help from up here. Then again, I wouldn't be of much use if I was captured, would I? So, overall, the best thing would be for me and Ray to stay there.

After the meeting, the crew dispersed, Back to their daily duties, I supposed. It took a lot to keep a ship like this afloat, I was sure. And yet, I wasn't asked to do anything in particular. I would have been happy to help out, to solidify my spot as a part of the crew, but… nothing. I looked around a little bit for Captain Jesse or First mate James to ask them what my assignment was, but I couldn't find them. Well, no, I did find them, but they were so busy and so surrounded by other crew members that I figured now was not the time to be bothering them. So I finally settled on just… taking some time to rest. A lot had happened in the last few days… a lot. I needed some time just to… process it all. So, I pulled up a deck chair by the edge of the deck and sat and thought for a long while. It seemed Ray wandered off elsewhere. That was fine. He was free to do as he pleased.

A cloud from the bottom looks like a flat image, like someone posted wallpaper for us to look at, but above them, among them, you can see clearly that they are, in fact, three dimensional objects in space. You get a much… fuller, richer look at the world around you, from a perspective you didn't have access to. No wonder birds seem more free. That was what these last few days were for me. The world got turned upside down, and now I could see it as a three dimensional object, rather than a flat one. The capital was a flat little place, a fantasy within a fantasy… worthless and meaningless in this real world. Everything I had ever known. There was very little value to it. But, uh… that was ok. I was learning now. I would no longer be ignorant. I heard the cries of the people, of the world, and I was going to listen to them, and respond with everything I had.

When I got Ray, I thought that was it. All of my problems were solved. My life's journey was at its end, and now I could spend the rest of the time becoming great, like I knew I was meant to be. Ray… had a different opinion, though. And now we were of the same opinion once more, which was a relief, honestly. Being at odds with the soul that is connected to your own, that does something to you, not being in harmony. It's like, there's a certain fatigue that comes with it, and now I was free of that. Ray had done an excellent job speaking, and we could both get what we wanted. We could both get ou happy endings…. Or, die trying. Still, I felt his words from earlier resonate deep within my heart. United, we could not fail. A group of talented people, all heading in the same direction, using all their efforts and resources to make a single thing happen. Not even Arceus himself could stop a group like that. That was, assuming I could even take Arceus at face value. He had visited several times, yes, but was there some trickery in that as well? I would have to ask. I almost didn't want to ask. How much more could get shattered, how much more?

"HEEEEYYYY!" A nosy finge jabbed at my side, breaking my train of thought. I turned around, bewildered. What in the world was happening, what? This, um, there was a kid next to me, her finger firmly jammed in between my ribs. She looked like she had no intention of taking her finger away, either. She was… maybe 12? No older than that. What in the world was a kid that age doing on a pirate ship? This was a pretty dangerous place to be. I hadn't seen any other kids here, either. That didn't mean there weren't any kids, of course. I hadn't seen this kid at the meeting that supposedly had all the crew members at it. Although, looking at her, that miiight have been because she was too short to be seen among the other, fully grown pirates.

"Uh… what?" I asked. Not in a rude way or anything, I just wanted to know what exactly it was she wanted.

"You're from the capital, yeah? A princess from the capital, huh? Huh?!" She had this huge smile on her face, like I was some kind of new toy to her. Some sort of novelty that she could play with. He eyes were practically sparkling.

"Yeah… that's me. Who are you?" I asked, a little on the defensive. This seemed like the type of kid who had no filter and would just do whatever they felt like, with little to no regard for rules or consequences.

"Me? I'm Millie, Millie the great!" Millie put her hands on her hips and struck a confident pose. I couldn't help but smile a little. She reminded me of some of the kids I used to explore with. I wondered how they were doing… I wanted to rescue them. They were just as trapped in this awful place as I was. The only way I could rescue them, though, was to defeat the evil that lurked inside the capital… to destroy my own family. That was what it sounded like it was going to take. It was either that or somehow convince them to turn against this dark master. I would try to do that, but if I was being honest, I had my doubts as to whether that was possible…

But now was not the time for that. I would… I'd… I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. I would… I didn't know what I would do, if it came down to that…

"Uh… hello? Princess? You still there? You're not allowed to ignore me like that!" Millie yelled, her face directly in mine. I blinked and backed away. Little girl was a little scary, huh?

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking you reminded me of some people in the capital. Nice to meet you, Milie." I stuck my hand out for her to shake. She looked down at my hand, then back up at me, then back down and back up a few times… Did she not understand a handshake? I put my arm back down. "Uh, anyways, what was it you wanted, Millie?" I asked.

"Tell me everything about the capital! I've been all around the kingdom but I've never been there. It's the one place I know nothing about. None of us really do, or they won't talk about it with me. What is it like, tell me!" She demanded. I didn't super appreciate the demanding nature in which she asked, but I was used to it, for sure. I decided to let it go. After all, I wasn't her parent or anything. I really had no right to parent her. But, uh… where were her parents? Did she have parents? Were they somewhere on this ship? Why did they let her on the ship?

"Well, uh, the capital is nice. It's a lot different than here. Everything is this clean white rock and people live content lives. But I guess they can do that because our government preys off the rest of the world. I didn't know that. I thought everything was self contained… like we grew our own food and materials and stuff. I guess it was kinda stupid of us to think that. I mean, I vaguely knew there was some sort of trade or something, I don't know. Seems that wasn't the case though. There was no trade, only plundering innocent cities. Isn't that ironic. The pirates weren't the ones doing the plundering. Then again, maybe that was just a story told to make you guys sound bad, the biggest thorn in the dark court's side."

"Hmmmmm. The people don't know the king is doing this. That's pretty stupid, if you ask me. Sounds like the people in the capital are a bunch of idiots." Millie said, sneering. She probably was pretty easy to scare if I really wanted to, this type of superior attitude… it was to cover up for something, some weakness. I wasn't trying to take her down, though, either. I just knew not to take that attitude too seriously.

"Yep, and me along with them." I laughed it off, and she laughed along with me. Seemed this was just her sense of humor or something.

"MILLIE!" A pirate woman ran up to the two of us, she had bright red hair tied back in two messy low ponytails or low pigtails or whatever you called that style of hair. It was hair that sort of matched Millie's, which meant- "I'm sorry, Emerald. This is my daughter, Millie. She gets excited, if not a little nosy, a little, uh, bossy." She turns to Millie. "I told you not to act like that in front of the princess."

"Sorry, ma." Millie said, but I could tell she didn't mean it, it was just a formality for Millie, nothing more, nothing less. Something she was made to say, that didn't actually mean very much to her.

"Uh, it's fine, actually." I chuckled. "I don't want to be the princess, here. I'd really like to just be part of the crew, if that's possible. I just want to adventure with you guys and make the world right again. Undo what my family has done to you all. So, please… don't treat me special." I scratched the back of my head, chuckling awkwardly.

"She's just like any of us, right, ma? She wasn't on the ship and now she is. Cept me." Millie puffed her chest out. "I was born on this here ship, and I'll die on it!" Millie's clearly very proud of this. Her mom, who's name I hadn't gotten yet, was very clearly not as fond of this attitude.

"Millie, no, don't talk like that." The mother frowned at her, then looked back at me and brightened back up a bit. "It's meal time in a few moments, Emerald. I advise you get there quickly. Food goes fast around here, especially the good stuff."

At the mention of food, Millie immediately perked up and ran off in the direction of what must have been the dining hall of the ship. She really wanted whatever that good stuff was. The mother looked after her child and sighed. She looked at me as if to say "kids, am I right?" and then rushed off in the direction of her child. So Millie was born and raised on this very ship, huh? That was fascinating. She was raised by the whole crew, I imagined. What an interesting life. I would have to talk to her more, find out more about what that was like. For now, though, it was dinner time.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day!**


	39. A Toast

**Ray's POV**

* * *

So, nobody was gonna say it, huh? Nobody was even going to ask? Nobody was even going to acknowledge we lost a member of our party? Nobody was going to look for Flygon, or even ask where he was?

Fine, I would do it.

This did not sit right with me, though. This did not sit right with me. Maybe I was just

imagining things, but it seemed to speak to the rift I noticed increasingly in this world. There was a rift in between humans and Pokemon. Pokemon, although they were valued by humans, did not seemed to be valued as much as humans. At first I thought it was just Emerald, but now I saw she was merely a product of her society. We were treated as somewhat less, somewhat secondary. It wasn't outright, and it wasn't violent, but Emerald being worried about Strider and not even asking about Flygon was a fantastic example. Why should that be? Why should it be that neither Emerald nor the old coot had said a word about him. Strider could be excused, since he had been on those drugs the whole time, which made him incredibly unlike his usual self.

But… it was something I would not have to deal with for very much longer. I was going back to my world, where there were only Pokemon around, so there couldn't be the discrimination exhibited here. I only felt bad for those who had to stay here. Maybe they didn't even realize they weren't being treated fairly. Maybe they thought it was all normal and justified? It wasn't, but we were tackling enough problems with the world here. The Pokemon on this ship at least looked more or less happy. For now, that was enough. There was a horrifying, world swallowing void to destroy.

So, I would find Flygon myself. I wondered to myself, where he could have gone? No matter how lightly, he and Strider were still bound together. So, he couldn't have gone too far from Strider, right? So I guessed I would check all around us, in as wide a radius as I could considering my own bond to Emerald.

First, I checked the interior of the ship again, all the decks and whatnot. Nothing. He wasn't in the hallways, or in any of the rooms I checked. Just in case, I checked the medical bay again. Stride was still in there, sleeping away. I half expected to see Flygon curled up next to him, because they seemed to sleep that way. He was not there, just Strider, alone.

I thought about checking the cabins themselves, but that seemed like, a violation of privacy. Besides, if Flygon was in one of the crew member's rooms, he would show up eventually.

I found a large room with rows upon rows of tables and benches, long benches made of what looked like the same wood as the interior of the ship was made of. There were lots of people rushing around with food. A sailor came up to me with a funny little bowtie. I wanted a bowtie. It was… it was something I wore for my wedding. Well, my almost wedding… Anyways, he stopped me at the door.

"Sorry, Ray, but the dining hall isn't open until the meal call." And so I turned away.

So… not inside. What about outside, flying around, perhaps? He needed his exercise as much as I needed mine. Maybe we just kept missing each other or something? I didn't know. Only one way to find out though. I went up on the deck. I couldn't see him from my vantage point, but that didn't mean much of anything. He could have been behind cloud cover or something, or be in some place obstructed by the bottom of the ship? I took off and started a wide circle around the outside of the ship. At first glance, again, I saw nothing, but it was pretty cloudy.

I flew out in one direction, as far as my bond would let me go. I kept going until I felt a slight tug backwards. That was how I knew I was at the end of my rope, metaphorically speaking… and literally speaking, too, I guessed. I didn't really want to pull Emerald overboard for this one, so I stopped there. I looked back, a bit surprised at just how far away I was from the ship now. I couldn't even see it anymore, though I knew it was there. I flew through the clouds, weaving in and out and away. Everywhere… I looked everywhere, and he was nowhere.

Wait, I had one more idea. What if it was like Emerald before, and he got dropped into the ocean and was just sort of being dragged along. If that was the case, it would mean he was unconscious, because otherwise he would have flown back up, unless his wings were injured or something happened to him when he got water all over him. I didn't know a lot about the Flygon species, but I knew that it's type was ground, and ground didn't mix too well with water.

I dived down, as far as I could go, which it turned out wasn't anywhere near far enough. I could see the ocean level, but it was all misty and foggy down here. Plus, it was getting late, it was getting dark. I didn't realize how late it had become, how long I had been searching for Flygon, and still, I had not found him. Well… I wasn't going to get anywhere like this. Plus I heard a disturbingly loud noise, there was just, just a racket of noise just raining down on me. It almost hurt a little. I shook my head clear. I could not let myself fall again, I could not let myself slip again. I could not… I took a deep breath… and went back to the ship.

And found it dark and empty… and strangely very loud? There was the sound of hundreds of pirates, but muffled, inside the ship. Wasn't this a ship that prided itself in never being discovered? They had to have a lot of confidence about that if they were making this much noise and still planned on not being discovered.

Ok, well, the place wasn't completely empty. There was one guy I could see. It was James, standing all by himself on the deck. Was he supposed to be… a lookout? That was probably it. Still, a single lookout for an entire ship this big was a little irresponsible in my estimation, wasn't it? I flew over to James to see what I could see.

"Oh… Ray, my lad. Been wondering where you've been." James said. They were so welcoming to us, eerily so. I wasn't entirely sure I trusted these guys. I didn't know why. There was probably absolutely no reason to think that. No rational reason, anyways. Was it just, just paranoia? Was it happening again? Was I safe to be around? Or were they right to tie me up before.

"Hey." I said, a little too casually. What I meant was, I was forcing myself to sound casual just a little too much. I saw the look on James' face changed to one of unease. That wasn't good. He needed to believe I was safe, even if I didn't, because then they would… restore safety any way they could…

What was I talking about?! Of course I was safe to be around. This stupid sickness, stupid affliction, or the vestiges of it, was messing with my mind.

"Where have you been?" James asked.

"Out looking for Flygon. You haven't seen him, have you?" I asked. He paused for a moment, like he was thinking, but a little bit not, like he was, I didn't know. He had a look on his face I couldn't really decipher, and it didn't help that it was petty dark out the the shadows of candle light on the deck played across his face.

"Haven't seen a Flygon recently, cept when we picked the boy up."

"Strider?" I asked. James nodded. "That's the one. You seen him?"

"Nope." James replied. "Sorry."

"It's fine. I just hope everything's alright."

"That's Strider's partner, yeah? So he has to be somewhere." James said, thoughtfully scratching his beard. "You should go eat some dinner, Ray. It's first come first serve, and you're the last to show up. If you want anything good, you'd best hurry." I gave him a look. I wasn't sure why, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he was up to something, that for whatever reason I could not trust him. But I do not think that was my rational mind at work. Whatever. It was fine. I was fine. I had to be fine. If not, then the pirate crew would stop working with me, and I would never get home, I would never… never see my precious Meliae again.

So I shoved it down, gave him a shaky smile, and went off towards the dining hall, the source of the noise.

"Ray. One thing before you go. Stay yourself, alright?" It was like he could read minds.

"Alright." I answered, without turning my head back to look at him. I quickly made my way downstairs.

It was just as visually chaotic in the dining hall as it sounded from the deck. Pirates feasted, and doused themselves in drink with reckless abandon. It seemed to be in the buffet style, with a big table of food in the middle that you could take from and go to a table of the periphery. A lot of people seemed to just keep close by to the central table so they could take and take without having to move a lot. Pokemon were around, too, the companions to the pirates. It was good to see that they were at least fed as well as the humans around here.

"Hey, Ray! Where ya been, buddy!" Emerald waved over to me from across the room. Either she was impressively loud in a room of rambunctious pirates, or I was beginning to be able to pick her voice out of a crowd. Either way Emerald seemed a little… different right now. She may have been slightly intoxicated, or was at least acting like it. That wouldn't surprise me too much, since it seemed like nearly the entire crew was intoxicated as well. Maybe that was the reason James was on the lookout?

Emerald sat with Captain Jesse, the old coot, and Strider. Strider was up but he still seemed a little out of it from the anesthetic. It had been hours since he had been given it, hadn't it? He must have been given a particularly strong dose, or else his body was more sensitive to it. Everyone was having a great time, it looked like. It seemed like a pretty serious situation we were in, and yet it looked like they were having the time of their lives. I sat down next to them.

"Nice of you to finally join us. Where ya been?" Emerald asked again. I had heard her the first time.

"I was looking for Flygon. Remember him?" I asked.

"He's fine…" Strider managed to say through his daze. I was… a little doubtful. I wasn't sure I trusted Strider's word for it. Especially since he was all sort of out of it.

"Long tether, and he can tough, he's fought off better than you." The old coot pointed his winked finger at me and laughed out loud. Ok, I could decipher that. He and Strider had a very long tether, probably, ironically, because they were so close to each other. Well, I thought they were close. It could be that they weren't. They didn't really talk a lot, and he didn't seem very friendly with Flygon outright. But there was something about the way they interacted… that made them seem close. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Flygon had fought off better than me, huh? Well, that wasn't very hard to believe right now. I wasn't particularly powerful right now, what with Emerald being a bit of a wimp. We would soon fix that issue, though.

"Alight, alright. Just don't forget about him. We matter, too." I frowned. Strider laughed a little.

"I won't he'll… we'll… don't worry." Stride said, and then he seemed to doze off.

"Hey! Everyone!" Jesse bellowed at the top of her lungs, and slammed down a mug she was carrying for good measure. Almost immediately, the hall, which had been a chaotic wall of noise not two seconds earlier, now came to a hush. She raised her glass, and everyone followed her lead. These people… they really respected their leader, didn't they?

"I wanna make a toast, a toast to our newest crew mates, a toast to the times ahead. In a day's time, we'll be over the trade center. We are going to war, my friends, war against the oppressors of this world. It won't be easy, but we have to, for survival, or nobody else will. Nobody else has the guts! Hah!" She struck a pose.

"We are in for hard times ahead, rough skies… but, tonight, let us drink and be merry! Let us laugh uproariously in the face of fate! Drink up, lads!" She toasted her glass, and so did the rest of us, and we drank, and it was uproarious.

* * *

 **Have an awesome day**


	40. Nightly Admissions

Emerald's pov

* * *

It was the middle of the night, and I couldn't sleep. It wasn't really the rock of the ship, the unfamiliar environment and the, um, the air pressure thing. Those certainly didn't help, but it wasn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem was… the memory of what had happened earlier in the day… with Strider. He acted with me as if he wanted to be in a meaningful relationship of some sort. He called me his beauty, and he wasn't being sarcastic or anything. However, he might have been under the influence of those drugs, the anesthetic. He might have been… well, he wasn't lying, but he wasn't himself either.

I couldn't lie. I did like him. I did find him attractive, dashing. I wouldn't mind being in a relationship with him, or at least trying it out. I wouldn't mind trying, if he wanted to. He was just so… mysterious a guy. I kept trying to figure him out, but I really couldn't. Did he want the cash and just the cash, or did he like the adventure, or did he like me, or had his motives changed? Or was he just here because he had been kidnapped. Or… why was he still here? Because Flygon wasn't around to fly him away? He could have gotten his reward and more for something with less risk than being my bodyguard. Oh, and a hell of a good job he did, too, letting me get kidnapped like that. It turned out for the best, of course. Now I got to be part of a pirate crew, a long term dream. But… there was no way he could have known that, and no way he could have known these guys wouldn't just kill us right away.

I tossed, I turned, my mind would not shut up, would not let me sleep. What a pain in the neck. I could usually just shrug off thoughts like that, you know, just go to sleep anyways. I had many nights where my mind was very loud, but it never… actually kept me from sleeping. But now, thinking about Strider… that was what did it, huh? That was the one I couldn't shrug off enough to drift off to sleep.

Well, there was no arguing with a mind like that. If I couldn't sleep, I couldn't sleep. So, it was time to take a walk. I wasn't entirely sure it was the best idea, considering… potential danger… I knew these pirates had accepted me into their crew, but that didn't mean one of them, in the dark, couldn't mistake me for an enemy. They were pretty drunk, after all. What if they thought I was one of the people in the dark court… or what if someone from the dark court actually showed up?

Oh well. I wanted to take a walk, and I wasn't about to let some stupid fear of an imagined enemy stop me. I was better than that. I got up and carefully tip-toed over the old coot, over Strider, all curled up in his bed, and over Ray. Ok, I didn't actually climb over them, but it felt like it. I got passed them all and opened the door. It creaked. I looked back to check if I had woken anyone up. Ray stirred a little, but did not wake. He did not look very comfortable there. He was a dragon who needed space… and this room was not exactly the most spacious, especially since there were three humans also trying to sleep in here. I imagined what it would be like if Flygon, another large dragon, were ALSO trying to sleep here. Maybe it was better that he wasn't here right now. Or, maybe if that was the case they would have given us another room. Whatever, this place wasn't built for comfort. Plus… that was kind of awful of me to say, now that I thought about it. Of course I wanted Flygon to come back. It was just… really crowded in here.

I lingered for a moment, and then the old coot started up his snoring again. It wasn't pretty. It was loud and awful, and I did not have the slightest inkling how the other sailors were sleeping through this. It was almost cartoonish. Maybe that was why I couldn't sleep… no, it was definitely the thoughts bouncing back and forth in my mind, but the snoring and other unfamiliar noises didn't help. That's right, this was my first night in a new environment, even though it felt like I'd been there forever. No, no, this room was not a good place to be. I needed to get out into the air… free air, cold air. I opened the door and slipped out.

Through the passageways and up onto the deck. I couldn't see a single soul, and just a few lights. I could see, but only because the rooms down below had been pretty dark, so my eyes were already adjusted. Whoever it was that drove the ship or kept the engine running or whatever must have been awake, if out of sight, because we were still going full speed ahead, which made for a brisk breeze. To be frank, it was absolutely gorgeous. The stars were out and twinkling at me. There were so many of them, the only reason I could see was that we were below a layer of smog I had seen earlier in the day. The world outside the court, or the capital, or whatever… the world outside the white cliffs… was not a pretty one.

So I just walked for a little bit, just walked, trying to clear my head. It was still sort of buzzing… The cool air did me good, would do me good. The moon was huge in the sky, and everything bathed in her beautiful light.

I saw a figure in the dark. Who was that? Why was there someone… or was there even actually somebody there? I had very little way of knowing. Was it reality or were my eyes playing cruel tricks on me. My heart rate rocketed upward. Whoever it was… I was ready to fight with everything I had. It had to be an enemy, a member of the dark court, who else would be.

"Emerald? What are you doing out here?" The figure said. Oh, I recognized the voice. It was Strider. I felt silly…

"Arceus! You scared me, Strider. Shadow in the dark like that, thought you were about to kill me." I shook my head. Wait a sec…. "Weren't you in bed? I thought I saw you there?"

"Nah. Maybe you saw some bunched up blankets? I've been out here for a while. Also, not to worry, I won't kill you. You're not on the list." I wasn't entirely sure, but I thought I could see him smirking. I knew it was a joke, but it still made me a little uneasy, him talking about his assassination work. Was I… was I ok with that, with… how did I feel about him, and he had killed. But, was it just a necessity of this world. Was it something I could forgive him for and become close with him? Well, now was as a good a time to talk as any. He was the one making my head so loud in the first place.

"Strider… do you remember anything from when you were under the anesthetic?" I asked. He sat there and thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"Not really, lil lady. Why? Did I make a fool of myself?"

"No, but you did confess you have romantic feelings for me. Is that true?" I asked, straight to the point. He started, inhaled sharply, like I caught him off guard. No, I knew I took him off guard. What did that mean, though? Was it true, and he didn't want to tell her about it yet, or was it not true and he was appalled. Or maybe there was some other option. I could have said something else or went back on my words, but that would have… well, I elected not to. I would let him take whatever time he needed. However, I wasn't about to let him drop the subject. I needed this answer.

And so he sat… he seemed to mull over the answer, like he wasn't entirely sure, himself. That was fine, if that was the answer. I would let him do all the thinking he needed, for the time we were here, at least. So I look at him and he looks at me and we sit for a while… I didn't want to interrupt his thought process, but he was sitting there so long it seemed as though he might never answer...

"I do. Or, at least… the beginnings of them. You're awful pretty, and you have a certain way about you. It's, uh, it's caught my attention." He said, looking into my eyes. I could see that he was telling the truth, no doubt about it. So, how was I going to respond to him. He looked younger, somehow, in this light. Did he know anything about love, and… did I? Well, I was fairly sure I didn't, but I thought he would have.

"I'm into you, too. You wanna do something about it?" I asked. He gave me a really uncomfortable look.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing dirty, if that's what you were thinking. Nothing dirty. Just, I dunno, try dating, try out the idea of it… see how we like it, and go from there. You know? Like an experiment." I shrugged. "Only way to really find out is to try… unless you're afraid." I teased.

"Afraid? Nah. You're on, little lady. Just… uh…" He shifted uncomfortably again. "Let's not tell nobody til we know for sure, ok? Til we know we're gonna be a couple for real. I don't want people to get the wrong idea, you know?" Strider asked. I could decode that one.

"You want to be able to back out easily." I nodded. "So do I. Then… it is agreed."

"Well, no need to be so formal. You really are a princess, aren't you?" He gave me a smile that warmed me on this chilly night… in this dark world. But the warmth faded somewhat at his words.

"Not anymore, I'm not." I looked off into the sky. Somewhere out there… my family was wreaking havoc on the world, serving someone who would see the citizens on this kingdom destroyed. They were probably living lives of luxury while it all transpired, too. I knew they did, because I did too. They had wanted me to join them… the family business, destroying everything I thought we were building up.

"Hey, I wanna show you something. If we're gonna try out this couple thing." I braced, half expecting him to take off his clothes or show me some weird and awful defect or scar. He didn't do any of those things. Instead, he took out a spherical object. I couldn't really make out any of its details, just that Strider now had this solid sphere in the palm of him hand. It was pretty small, too, about the size of his palm. I thought back to everything I had ever seen in my life, but I hadn't seen anything quite like this. I was completely stumped.

"What is it?" I wondered out loud. Strider had obviously been waiting for me to ask such a question, because I could see his eyes sparkle, despite the darkness of the night.

"It's my most prized possession! I don't know what it's real name is or how exactly it worked, but it was used to store Pokemon. It acted like our soulbonds do, a little. From my research, I've found out that people would go get Pokemon roaming in the wild and try to get them into one of these things, and when the humans finally managed to do it, the Pokemon would act more friendly and tame and wouldn't just run away again. Seems kinda cruel, people taking them out with no mutual bond… but when you study history, you can't judge it, or else you run the risk of completely missing the truth and a good learning experience."

I blinked, taken aback. He just kept going, and he was so excited about it. I hadn't… I hadn't heard him say this many words during the entirety of our time together. In the span of thirty seconds he had completely trashed his cool, smooth guy reputation. Ok, I got it. He wanted me to see this side of him, the side he hadn't been showing, right at the top. This way, I wouldn't be surprised or disappointed later. If I was going to dump him for this, better it be now than later.

"Hehe, glad to see you're passionate about something, you giant nerd." I said affectionately. "Maybe we can go explore some ruins as a date or something. For now, though… my mind's been cleared of what was bothering it, so I should really go to bed. Night, Strider." I said. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and quickly retreated back to our cabin. I slept good that night.

* * *

 **Have a good day**


	41. Slow Start

**Ray's POV**

* * *

I didn't wanna get up, I really did not want to get up. Maybe if I slept here, just lay all coiled up on the ground like this for a long time… maybe then I could sleep through this whole disaster of an adventure. Last night had been a lot. My head was pounding, every single one of my joints ached, and I had a lot of them. Oh man, Mel, if you could see me now… you would probably be ashamed, but I wasn't having a good time, and last night had been an escape for a while. The captain told us to eat, drink, and be merry. Well, I may have overdone it with following her advice. James and I got into a drinking contest. I won because he passed out. I passed out shortly afterward.

Either I had gotten myself up in the middle of the night and back to the cabin, or someone brought me back, because I woke up in our room. Everyone was fast asleep. I guessed they had a bit too much fun last night, too. I really wasn't up to, well, getting up right now. So I sat on the floor, coiled up. Ugh. Why this, why all of this, why did I have such a horrible uh, what was the word, judgement, I guess. What was wrong with me, doing something stupid like that. Oh well, what was done was done. Now all there was to do was keep on going, you know? Just keep on going, all there was to do. Or else, you stop, and then what becomes of you? Ugh, I wasn't making sense again. I had to break that habit, it wasn't healthy for my mind.

Was I in control? Was my will in control of the things I did? What was free will, anyways. It could all just be a part of the illusion… the mass illusion i was slowly being trapped in. I could feel it happening, a sort of sinking, constricting feeling. A sort of anxious hum. I didn't know how to describe it super accurately. This was all nonsense, anyways. None of it actually mattered. None of it actually meant anything. So why was I even thinking.

Thinking… I remembered something. An old friend, back in my world, in my hometown, my childhood… I had an old friend who once explained to me that the fact that we have the ability to think means that we have free will. I forgot exactly what he said, how exactly he came to that conclusion, but he was a pretty smart guy, and I trusted his logic. I had joked before that I would appoint him to be my adviser when I was king. That was… a lot less likely to happen, now. I hoped to be able to take the throne when all of this was through, but there was also something in the back of my mind that told me that might not happen. I didn't know why, just… something.

Well, I probably needed to get up. My stomach was telling me it was time to get up and have something, anything, to eat. The feast last night really had been nice. I wondered what kind of this we would have today. Probably more of the same, leftovers. I had to wonder why they were holding a feast when they also needed to pick up more supplies. Maybe it was to make sure the food didn't go bad? Eh, it wasn't like I really cared, as long as I had something to eat and it didn't make me absolutely sick, that was fine with me... I used to have higher standards than that, didn't I? I knew I did… oh, this adventure. I wasn't myself anymore, was I?

No use thinking about it. I slowly, ever so slowly uncoiled myself and slinked, very low to the ground, out the door. I closed it carefully. I didn't want any of my companions to wake up. They had a long day and night as well, I imagined. They deserved some rest.

I snaked along, alone, low to the ground. Seemed most of the crew was still asleep. I wondered if anyone stayed sober last night, if anyone didn't partake of drink. I didn't blame them, it was good drink. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it had a good taste, a good sort of zing to it. I would have to ask the chef or whoever was in charge of the food. Maybe when I was back at the palace, I could have the chef make dishes with it. Oh, but what if it was made from something found only in this world. That would be a shame, truly. I wasn't about to drink that much of it again, though.

Off I went to the dining hall I went. There were a whole bunch of pirates passed out on the benches. I guessed some of them didn't make it to their beds. I sympathized with them but I also had to stifle my laughter a little. They were in just… just the weirdest positions. Many of them had their butts stuck up in the air. Ah yes, fear the powerful sky pirates!

Well, last night I did fear them, at least a bit. Some of those guys were dangerous drunks. Fights broke out, it was a huge… hazard. I may have gotten into a fight or two, myself. I wasn't entirely sure. My memory of the whole thing was just a little bit fuzzy, you know? I had never had drink like that before. I still felt a little woozy from it, but in a sort of good way. This headache, though… that was not as fun. Everything had a consequence. My memory was all foggy.

When a large portion of the crew had passed out, and most everyone was partied out, I got to hear some interesting stories. I didn't remember them super well… There was something about a lost society underground where they never saw the light of the sun and spoke in strange tounges. There was something about… humans and Pokemon working as one… body? There was… uh… what else? Living water, like water but with a will or something? And it kidnapped people and then sent them back a week later with no memory. They also told about others who had the same affliction I did. It was nice to know at least that I wasn't alone in this. This wasn't my thing alone to bear. Maybe that was why they tied me up so fast. They knew the signs, they knew what this sickness could do to a person, and that was why they tied me up.

Weird stories. There might have been more. Something about… nope. It was gone. If it was ever there to begin with, it was gone now. There was still food on the tables. I found something that looked appetizing , and gobbled it down. Oh man, I was thirsty. Where was the water? I went into the kitchen and found a big tank of water. Oh, good. Goood, good, good. I thought I would have a harder time finding this. I opened it up and guzzled down. Not too much, I couldn't just drink everyone's water supply. We still a few hours yet before we reached the trade center to get more water and more, um, everything.

Once I had something to eat, and something to drink, I went up on the deck to get some fresh air. The sun hurt my eyes, so I closed them enough to shut out some of the light, but not so much that I couldn't see. There was nobody else up here, just me, myself, and my headache. Weren't we supposed to have someone on deck to keep a lookout. It wasn't like last night with James. I couldn't see a single solitary soul up here. So… nobody was watching to make sure we were safe and undiscovered? Was that just… what was the word, pride… arrogance… were they just so confident they wouldn't get caught that they didn't bother to have someone on guard lookout duty? Or was the person who was supposed to be out here just irresponsible?

Or… was I the one who was supposed to watch? I might have agreed to something like that last night. I didn't remember. Probably someone who didn't drink should have taken watch. That ruled out James. He joined the party halfway through the night. Nobody asked him who he left to keep guard. Not sure why. That seemed like a really obvious question to ask, but nobody did. I was too busy with everything going on, and I guess maybe everyone else expected it to happen? I didn't know. Whatever, it was, well, we hadn't been boarded, and we weren't crashing or dying or anything. So, I guess I had nothing legitimate to complain about. Nothing really happened. Something could have happened, but nothing really happened.

I stretched out, feeling the breeze and the sunlight on my back. I twisted my spine, vertebrae by vertebrae to relieve the pain, the soreness. It felt really nice. I took a few deep breaths. This was… this was nice, especially after such a loud, crazy night. And I thought the humans were wild… the Pokemon last night. Most of them were small, they had to be to be on the ship. I was probably one of the biggest Pokemon on the ship. There were a lot of birds. That made sense, sky pirates having an affinity for the sky, connected to Pokemon who could fly.

Who made the rules of the bonds between humans and Pokemon, I wondered. Did anyone make that sort of decision? Well, for royals in the capital, it was decided by the counsel of legendaries, back in my world. That was special, though. Here… with everyone who wasn't royalty, was it something that someone planned out, something ordained? Perhaps by this Arceus she talked about sometimes? There were statues and things of him in the capital, but in my world… Well, there was a species with that name, like my species was Rayquaza… but they were just a normal bunch in my world. Maybe here it was different and there was one particular Arceus that had some sort of say in how this world was run. Did it really matter at this point? We had a world to save.

Speaking of a world to save… I wanted Emerald to get up and the old coot so we could start with the actual training… so Emerald could disguise herself so we could go into town because she was a wanted person. So much was happening it was a little hard to remember the reason we were doing things in the first place. I was just along for the ride, it felt like. It really felt like that. I'd been so in charge of my life before, and now I felt like I was drifting along, being pulled by some sort of undercurrent. I did things for Mel, yeah, but it was because I wanted to do things for her. This was… different.

Anyways… We needed to train, and couldn't do that if nobody was awake. I had no way of knowing what time it was, but the sun was up in the sky, and so it had been long enough. I went back down to the rooms. I was surrounded by some very loud snoring. It felt like I was taking physical blows to the head. Hey, maybe this could be part of the training. It felt like forever but I made it back to our rooms and nudged the old coot, trying to wake him up. I was greeted with upset grunting and a hit on the head. I had no idea what hit me for a second.

"What the-"

"Ya dun wake me up, ya idjit! I'll teach you what." I got another knock on the head, and again. I moved away from him, then. Fine, fine, I got it, he didn't want to get up. I really wished he didn't have that walking stick and also a habit of using it to hit us. I was going to snap that thing in half, the walking stick, not the old coot. We needed him. Although, it occured to me he would probably just take something else and hit us with it, or maybe just use his bare fists. Well, if he did that, I had claws. I would have loved to see him try to fight me.

He was pretty strong, though. If he wasn't, Emerald wouldn't have agreed to learn from him. Neither would I, for that matter. It just… why did this guy have to be the guy to train us? Why did this guy who was so off-kilter have to be so stupid powerful?

"The sun is high in the sky. I thought you said we'd be training." I growled.

"Shaddap!" He threw his pillow at me.

"Ugh… what?" Emerald's eyes fluttered open. Well, looks like we woke her up. "What… what time is it?"

"The sun is high in the sky, and everyone is asleep. We should train." I said.

"That sounds like exactly the reason we should go back to sleep, Ray." Emerald muttered. She rolled over and soon started snoring again. Well, that was great. Somehow, Strider hadn't woken up through any of this. How, I did not know. That boy was a heavy sleeper, or maybe he was still sleeping off the effects of the Anesthetic. It must have affected him so much more than it affected me. He was a lot smaller.

I wondered if this place had a library. Somehow, I sort of doubted it. These pirates didn't seem like the sort of people who wanted to sit down and read. They could tell each other stories and that would be it, huh? That would be just about it for them.

The old coot had rolled over, too. Um, well, if nobody was going to be awake… there was nothing to do, nothing at all. I guessed I would just… go back to sleep? Yeah. That seemed to be the only option that made any sense. Besides, my eyes were getting heavy. Well, alright then. I coiled myself up again and closed my eyes to go to sleep.

"Ray!" I woke up with a start. Emerald was yelling for me. I looked around quickly and realized from the room's lighting that several hours had passed since I fell asleep. Oh, that was great, that was just great. And now Emerald was the one yelling at me to get up, when I wanted to be up hours ago. This was just my luck. But, fine, whatever, better late than never. I uncoiled myself once again. It took a second or two to get myself up and out of the room, but I had a lot more energy this time around, and the headache was mostly gone. That was a relief. So maybe it was for the best that I had gotten more sleep. I could probably train better this way. I could probably, well, actually retain whatever it was I would learn.

Emerald looked pretty chipper today. She was just as excited as I was to finally be learning some new skills. We would finally be better than we already were, increase our strength. It was about time we did that. It was about time. If we were to face the enemies ahead, we had to get a lot stronger. As it was, we couldn't hold our own against the guy with the Rattatta, not to mention any of Emerald's sisters or the dark lord himself, whoever he was. The guy in the big dark robe… Before this was through, we would probably have to take him down. We still had quite a way to go.

Well, now was as good a time to start as any. I followed Emerald up onto the deck. It had a lot more sailors now, but not nearly as many as I thought there would be. And there was the old coot. It was finally time to train.

* * *

Have a great day!


	42. Training Time

**Emerald's POV**

* * *

Alright, I was rested, my mind was at rest, and my body was ready to start moving, my mind was ready to focus. That was something I couldn't say very often, wasn't it. I couldn't help by stifle a little laughter. It used to be that I dreaded having to train, but now I was really excited about it. Who knew, all it took to get me excited about magic training was being on a sky pirate ship and having my life and the lives of everyone around me threatened.

I was there, the old coot was there, and now so was Ray. I knew he was trying to wake us up before, but it had been way too early after the night we had, and he proved it himself by falling back asleep for so long. However, eventually enough had to be enough. We couldn't waste the entire day waiting for him to get up. Time was a precious thing, especially right now. We couldn't afford to waste too much of it.

I started stretching out, and Ray followed suit. This was the first thing I would do with Lilly. Freeing up the body and mind was important, apparently. I really hoped that he was a better teacher than her, or that maybe I was better now. I hoped I just… wouldn't struggle as much as I did in the past, because that would have been really annoying, come all this way and get this supposed master, just to find out I still can't do any magic, just to find out I was still a dud, that I could only accomplish what a toddler might be able to in terms of magical prowess. That's why I also wanted training from the pirates themselves. I wanted Jesse or maybe James to teach me to fight, to teach me swordplay, and how to fight dirty. I knew I could pick up on that much easier than I could with magic.

And how was the old coot going to teach me anyways? He never really did go into that, did he? The guy couldn't do magic himself. He didn't have a familiar, but he knew so much about it, or at least, he made it seem like he did. The way he helped the two of us lengthen our tether certainly wasn't fake. He was a bona fide, genuine… something. I had to believe he could teach us, because, quite frankly, if he could not, I had my doubts that anyone ever could. If there were even other teachers still out there to learn from.

Everyone had cleared out of the main part of the deck for us to wok on. It was a large, rectangular area. There were still a bunch of pirates on the sidelines, and such. Some were working to keep the ship afloat, some were fighting for fun, and some were just watching us, to see what would happen. I wasn't sure they were in for a very entertaining show, especially if this was my first lesson, but I guessed they had nothing better to do. Who was I to judge?

"Alright, everyone, your attention please. Clear the premises. This might get, uh... messy." The old coot cackled, shooing them off the part of the deck we were going to be training on. They did with surprisingly little upset. As far as I could tell, even though they listened to their captain, they didn't much care for being told what to do, which was a quality I enjoyed greatly. Still, they just stood aside, now. I couldn't help but wonder if this was a part of the magic, too. Wasn't sure how that would work, since, again, the old guy couldn't do any real magic.

"Why are they watching us?" Ray asked.

"I guess they just want to? Maybe to watch me screw up." I joked. But, I was pretty sue that was why half of the capital came to my bonding ceremony in the first place. Not to celebrate, but to watch me mess up, watch my magic backfire on me in the most hilarious way possible. I was glad I didn't give them that satisfaction… until I fell into the lake. That wasn't my fault, though, and it had nothing to do with the beacon. I did the beacon right! I really hoped that was not what these guys were here for, just to watch me mess up. That was all sorts of cruel, especially because I was just a newbie in their ranks. I needed time to grow and improve before I was ready for them to judge me.

"A'right. You done enough stretchin." The old man yelled, and banged his staff on the floor twice. When he did, it seemed the world turned silent, like we were the only ones there. He might not have had magic, but there was something strange in him, indeed. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, though.

"So, first thing I wantcha to do, wantch to give me your best display of magical energy running through ya. Emerald, you know it as a beacon. Ray, conjure up your power but do not shape it into anything, just let it flow out unfiltered. You may use any means of getting there, but I want to see the absolute best you have to offer. Need to see what there is to work with, ya whippersnappers. Now go."

There was something weird about his voice, like, he talked a little different when he was coaching. His actual voice sounded the same, old and crinkley, but his words and intentions became less garbled. You could understand him better, and then he would go right back into his nonsense. What was that about, I wondered.

Well, this wasn't really the time to worry about something like that. Our training had begun, and he wanted to start with an assessment. Well, I doubted he would be impressed with what he saw, but it was still my job to give everything I had. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and concentrated.

The last time, the thing that got me to be able to shine my beacon out was the sound of the ocean, and the longing to be free, to go out on an adventure. Now I had been out and seen exactly what there was to see in this world. That illusion was broken forever, so there wasn't any real point in trying to call on that image of the world again. Besides, the ocean was out of reach, now. We were very high up in the air and what's more, we weren't even above the ocean, we were miles away from ocean. So I guessed I would have to use what was around me… the sky… and the rebellious hearts of the pirate crew. I drew my attention to those things, and began to concentrate.

I could feel something in the air. I could like… I could see something in the air, even though my eyes were closed, seeing with my mind's eye. It was like… little flames, little pops of color and the outlines of my fellow pirates. Actually, as I concentrated more, I could see the whole world. It was gray and smeared with colors, like liquid, or wind. What in the world was this? What… was this? I had never experienced this before. Was this… energy? I was seeing the energy of the world? That was crazy, I'd never been able to see it before! And, I didn't even do anything to train up til now. I didn't think I did, anyways. Maybe… No, I… anyways, sensing energy around me wasn't enough to make a beacon. I had to then channel that energy into my body and release it.

How was I going to draw it in… I wasn't sure I could, especially because it was the energy of other people. I had never seen that before, and I wasn't sure what kind of effect it would have. It was strong in them, the energy, the spark of rebellion was strong in them. However, if I used them as my source, would they be hurt? Would they die? I wasn't about to risk it. I would ask the old coot when I had the chance.

So, I turned my attention to the environment, the clouds and the wind and all of that. It was all sort of… red. The energy of the air was red. That was weird. I didn't know why exactly I thought it was so strange. Why was the energy red when the color was blue. Wasn't color a kind of energy, too? Well, it didn't matter. I inhaled deeply, and imagined the energy from the air coming back into my body.

Slowly… ever so slowly… it began to come towards me. I exhaled and it went away a little… inhaled, it came forward, exhale, it went away. Ok, so I just had to make my inhales bigger than my exhales. I did that for a while, and soon the energy was in my body. Now I had to release it. I felt it in my body, in my bones, in my face. It was a very strange feeling, stronger than it had been during the ceremony.

I exhaled quickly, and opened my eyes. A light shined out. It was brighter than it had been, but it wasn't… as bright as I'd been hoping. Also, it didn't shoot out like a beam, but just sort of hung around me like crystals or something. I looked to the old coot to see how I was doing, if that was good enough. His face was uncomfortably neutral. I saw a sort of light around Ray as well, but it looked like a rainbow, like a prism, like he was a prism. What did the old man think of our display.

Time went by, very slowly, very quickly… I wasn't sure which it was. Everything felt slightly warped, most of all time, most of all space. Was this some sort of magic itself? I did not like this, I did not like this one bit.

"And… you can let that go." The old coot said, and as soon as he did, all the light dissipated. I blinked and looked around. Everything was how it was supposed to be, now the light was gone, everything was gone, that strange sense of distortion was gone. Thank goodness for that. All the pirates that had been watching us seemed… awestruck. Was what we did really impressive, or something. It didn't feel that impressing, I just did some breathing. So… what was the deal? I just… I wanted some feedback here, but not from the watchers. I wanted feedback from the guy that was supposed to be teaching us here. Were we doing good? Were we doing bad? How were we supposed to know?

"So, how did we do?" Ray asked. Good, he asked before I did, I was sort of afraid to ask first. Now, I'd been about to do it anyways, because fear wasn't about to stop me for anything. However, that didn't diminish the relief that came with having him ask the question instead.

The old coot, however, didn't answer. He just sort of looked at us, his eyes unfocused, like he wasn't even paying attention. I frowned. What was he up to, or was he up to anything… or did we do that to him accidentally… or was he just being his ridiculous self? There was no way to tell with this guy.

"Hey, old coot. Did you see what you needed to? Tell us something, please." I said. He still said nothing, and neither did any of the audience. It was weird to hear them all be so silent. I could even hear them breathing. I was glad I could, because that meant that they were alive, for sure. We didn't accidentally kill them or something. I was pretty sure we weren't in that weird dimension where the trial of the souls took place. I was pretty sure that was inside our souls or something, and that was why it got all blended. Was the old man just thinking? I was starting to get a little worried.

"Hm… I see." The old man finally said. I exhaled. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath. Ok, good, he was alive, he was here with us. However, his response wasn't exactly illuminating, was it? He saw… he saw… what? He saw what we did? He understood something about it? Ugh, I was still just as confused as ever.

"Alright, no more audience. I gotta be alone with the newbies." The old man said with a rye grin. Then he started shooing the crowd away, flailing his arms wildly, and they scattered. A majority of them went below the deck. They probably had things to do anyways, just like I would after this training session was done. I was a member of the crew, and that meant I needed to help maintain this ship in one way or another. Everyone had to chip in under Captain jesse's order. Captain Jesse was in the captain's quarters, and James was down on the ground. I went to wake Ray up after the ground parties had departed for the trade center. It was better to work now, when there were less people around, less crowded here, and we didn't have to squish other people to give us enough room.

"So… people came to watch… we showed you our power, and now they can't watch anymore. I have to say, this isn't what I imagined training with you would be like." Ray said.

"Oh, and what did you think this was goin ta be, ya whippersnapper? I'm telling you I need ta get a lay of yer powers. Root around, see what I have to work with, you know. I'm sure ya undestand well enough. And if ya don't, well, I dun care much, now, do I?" The old man gave a cackle. It was slightly unnerving. Yeah, something was definitely off about him. I disagreed with Ray, though. This was exactly what I expected from training with him… complete and utter nonsense that somehow translated into better magic use. I meant, did Ray eve watch this guy, of course his teaching style was going to be as whacked out as his personality.

"I don't know, drills? Specific technique that you demonstrate and we do, and then we kept doing it until it's second nature?" Ray asked. Yeah, but that kind of training hadn't worked for me, yet.

"Yer not good enough fer drills, yet. Drills are fer people who can shape their magic. You two are weak." The old man said. He wasn't attacking us by it, he didn't mean anything bad. All he meant was… well, what he said. It was a fact, the both of us were weak. Ray might have been strong before coming here, in fact, just looking at him, I was sure he was, but coming here and attaching himself to me made him weak. I hoped he didn't resent me for that, and I hoped he wouldn't resent the old man for saying that either. I also wished I had something better to call our teacher than old man. I knew that was the name he wanted to go by, but it felt really disrespectful.

"That's fine, then tell us, how much longer will it be before we can do that?" I asked.

"Now, that's up to the two of you, is it not?" The old coot asked.

"What I mean to say…" I start to explain better this time. "What level of magic are we at right now. How much work do we have to do, how much farther do we need to go in our skills before we are ready to fight and, well… I want to disguise myself to get into town. You remember that, right? Everyone's looking for me, after all."

"Yer weak. It'll take a lot of training to get strong. Some of da training won't be with me, though. No, siree. You're gonna need yourself some training in the field, as they call it. Hehe, and I have a funny feeling yer gonna get it."

"So, what I'm hearing is… we're gonna be fighting people. Right?" I asked.

"That's right. Now, lemme unlock some of your energy. I did a little. Doesn't excuse the hard work of course, but it breaks this block you have. It's nearly gone already, I been working on you enough. Maybe that's why you got out of the affliction so easy, ain't it?" The old man laughed a little. Something about him seemed inconsistent… His speaking was kind of inconsistent, and I didn't know why.

"Uh, ok, what do we have to do?" I asked.

"Stand straight, arms out." He said with a toothy grin. I frowned. What in the world would that accomplish. Then again, he did something similar when he lengthened our tether so that we could move further apart. He just sort of hit a spot on my back and went farther than I ever thought I'd be able to. So, I guessed I would trust him. I put my arms out and stood straight, and Ray did the same. Well, he didn't stand, cause he didn't have feet, but he had the tip of his tail brush the deck, so that he was stretched his entire length. I'd never seen him stretched all the way out vertically. He was quite tall, at least two feet taller than me. I felt pretty tiny next to him, but that was ok.

"Now close your eyes." The old man said. I hesitated just a little bit, but closed my eyes. I could hear the old coot working with Ray. I wondered what he was doing with Ray. Hm…

Wait… what was happening?! I saw something bright, but that was probably just some sort of energy thing, like what we were doing before. But this was a little different, there was heat, and the heat grew, and it was close and… If it was a test, I failed, because I had to open my eyes and turn around, and fire, IT WAS FIRE!

"HIT THE DECK!" The old coot yelled, and I threw myself to the ground, as the sky burned.

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 **I thiiiink I only have one written chapter after this one... so I gotta go and write more...eventually...**


	43. Oh No

**Ray's pov**

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When the fire died down, I blinked a few times. I could taste ash in my mouth. Did that… did I… that fire came from me. Nothing like that had ever happened. Just what did this old man do to me?

I looked down on the deck. They looked afraid. Why were they all so afraid? Well, that wasn't a very tough question to answer. I had just exploded with fire. My eyes had to adjust, I had been temporarily blinded by the brightness of my flames. Many of the people lying on their stomachs had the backs of their clothing singed. I did that, but I didn't do it on purpose. I did not will it to happen. So then, why did it happen? Thankfully, the ship didn't have any serious damage… or any damage, really. Why wasn't a wooden boat burning? Was it magic or something? Probably.

"Perhaps… we should take a break." The old coot said, getting up off the floor. I coiled myself back so I could be closer to the floor. What just… what just happened? I wanted an answer, but the old coot just walked off, leaving us alone on the deck. Several pirates scrambled out onto the deck. What strange behavior, to go toward the proverbial… and in this case, literal, fire, instead of running away. That was just the kind of people they were, I supposed. The old coot said a few words to them that I didn't understand, and they shuffled back down. There was nothing to see here.

"Uh…" Emerald grunted, pulling herself up off the ground. I saw that the fire had completely burned through her clothing at some parts, and reached her skin. Oh no… did I hurt her? That wouldn't do at all.

"Are you ok?" I asked. She pulled herself up to her feet slowly before answering me.

"Yeah, I think so. My back hurts a bit." Emerald laughed a little, then knelt down again, in pain. "That was amazing, though! How did you do that?"

"No idea." I said, I looked at her… the condition she was in. "Maybe you should go see the medic."

"Yeah… maybe." She said, motionless. "Can you, um, can you carry me. Sorry, just-"

"No problem." I picked her up and carried her gently downstairs and to the medical station.

"I heard what happened, put he down on the bed. I have some salve that will clear that right up." The medic said. He looked pretty concerned, but I had no idea why he felt that way, he hadn't known Emerald very long. Maybe he just loved everyone like that? Who knew, I certainly didn't feel like asking him. But… something concerned me, how did he hear about it so fast?

"How did you know she's be coming? It was two minutes ago." I asked.

"Your teacher came and told me." The medic said, although his voice was fading out, he was very focused on what he was doing. That made sense, this medicine thing was something like magic, and that took a lot of focus, too.

"Do you know which way he went?" I asked, but he was gone, already completely absorbed in his work. I guessed I would have to go looking again.

I didn't have to look far. I turned around, and there he was in the doorway. I jumped back, startled slightly. I didn't expect him to just be there, not at all. He looked so grim, too, so serious. Was something wrong, was something… worse than I thought it was?

"What happened?" I asked. He seemed to completely ignore my question, and instead walked over to Emerald. He peered at her for a long while. It was just a little bit awkward, but at the same time, I didn't want to interrupt him… whatever he was doing.

"She will be alright. The burns are minor. She'll need a new outfit, though." He said.

"Good, I'm glad."

"You, on the other hand… are in a bit more trouble, lad." He said, peering at me, now. "That fire… that destruction… it means you are getting worse." His voice was deadly serious. My heart sunk. What… I was getting worse? What… what did that mean, exactly? What was wrong with me. No, no, I knew that, I knew what he was talking about… the affliction. This sickness inside of me, this dark energy consuming me… it was getting worse, huh?

"That wasn't supposed to happen, was it? The fire." I asked.

"Nope." The old man replied. "Can't be sure exactly how unlocked energy will manifest, but the fact that it was something that destructive means that darkness inside you is growing. They really gotcha good, didn't they?" He cracked a grin. "Might be beyond me to help. I can send ya back to the trial of the soul but I don't know if that'll do much of anything, might even consume you entirely if you do that. Not worth the risk right now."

"Is there anything… I can do?"

"Nope." The old man says said solemnly. Well, that was just great. Now I was a liability, liable to hurt someone… They were right to tie me up before, weren't they? I should have just stayed tied up. Actually, I should have just stayed in my own dimension. There would still be these problems, but they wouldn't be my problems, and I wouldn't be here making things worse for this world.

"So what can I do, what can we do, I mean?"

"Hm… There is a person I know, a specialist who may be able to help you. I don't know where she is these days. Perhaps I can ask the captain or crew to ask people on the ground about her." And then he just started walking off. What, that was it? Well… fine. Emerald… I hurt her, by accident this time. I felt a little bit of pain myself, that was right, we were connected. It wasn't bad, though. Of course, my pain tolerance was much higher than that of a human would be.

Well, now what? I guessed I would just watch this guy heal her? But he couldn't heal me… some woman would be able to heal me, though… if we could actually find her. Even if we did, there was no guarantee that she could actually do anything for me. The old coot said he could heal me, and he couldn't. Or, more accurately, I couldn't. This was my failure. I could have beat him when I had the chance. Now it was getting stronger.

Maybe I should have isolated myself below deck somewhere to keep other people safe? There had to be some sort of dungeon on this thing, or rather, I was pretty sure I had seen one somewhere. I couldn't be of any hindrance that way, couldn't hurt anybody accidentally. Well, actually, I could probably break out pretty easily, or rather, that shadow of myself. I didn't know if it was actually me, or another side of me, or something completely foreign that just happened to take my form. Did it really matter what it was? It was dangerous and wanted to get rid of Emerald, or wanted me to get rid of Emerald. Anyways, the point was that I could probably get myself out of any prison they had on board, so what would be the point of locking myself up. Unless there was some sort of magic binding… that might have been what the ropes were. I should have been able to get through those ropes the first night we arrived here…

I sighed heavily.

"You worried about her?" The medic asked, shaking me free from my looping thoughts. Oh, right, Emerald was right there, laying down, salve on her back. That salve must have felt really nice, because she was asleep, now, and it looked very peaceful. I was glad she was able to rest, now. I was sorry I did what I did, even if I didn't mean to.

"Yeah, I am." I said, even though I hadn't even really been thinking about her at all. I felt bad about that, too. We'd get out of this situation. I would make up for all the bad ways I treated her, but I wouldn't let her walk all over me, either. We would be partners in order to get this world taken care of and send me back to mine. I really needed to apologize for throwing her into the ocean that one time.

There was nothing to do now, unless the old man was willing to teach me without Emerald, unless there was something else to be done? I didn't know… I didn't know.

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 **Lol that's all I have til I write more, and I stopped writing quite a while ago. I plan to start up again soonish, have a good day**


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